I'll send some selected books of poetry to my son in Los Angeles

I've chosen 27 favored selections in all.

Some consist of rather short poems; one page and done;

Poems that hit like a flash of wet zinc dropped into

A vessel of molten zinc. (Don't try it.)

Others are long poems, not epic poems necessarily, but

Poems long enough to take-up 4 or 5 pages.

(Robert Browning ends his epic poem: "Fra Lippo Lippy"

With the line: "Don't fear me! There's the grey beginning. Zooks"!)

11 pages for one poem! That's half a night right there.

I’ll advise my son that to read all 27 books in one night

Will be the same as not reading any.   Besides,

Nobody can, nor should read 27 books of poetry in one night.

Reading 27 singular poems will be too much to ask of a son in Los Angeles.

This poem alone for example will be excessive through a 12 hour sitting.