Dumpty: The Age Of Trump In Verse is a kindergarten level collection of satirical political prose that coasts of the coattails of author John Lithgow’s acting career to sell a rather warped, biased, and poorly written poetic spoof of the presidency of Donald Trump. What some critics are proclaiming this lackluster collection as political genius comes off to poetry lovers and political neutrals as an obsessed, rabid, vent fest that wouldn’t be suitable as a substitute for dollar store toilet paper (that causes one too many rashes in the rectal regions) in part to it’s complete and shameless botching of the poetic form.
Had Lithgow not been an award-winning Hollywood icon, this politically ignorant subjugated collection of prose could be judged for what it is, a failed attempt at exerting his personal leftist political leanings to children under the auspice of it having a dual meaning for adults. Using rhythmic prose similar to that found in Mother Goose and Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Lithgow takes readers on a compromised journey of Donald “Dumpty” Trump’s tenure in the White House where he establishes from the beginning that Dumpty and his entire administration are the bad guys and girls of America’s political infrastructure and should be scorned. The wild accusations made in the poems indoctrinates impressionable minds and uninformed voters into subliminal fear and intimidation to accept Lithgow’s mean-spirited explanation of Dumpty and friends’ criminal leanings and poor political leadership without giving any room for personal choice or research.
We are not allowed to have an opinion, since every poem dictate to us what we should feel and think with no margin of error for informed opinions. We are scolded into Lithgow’s repeatedly failed attempts at comedic satirical prose because he, as an award-winning actor and writer of children’s books, is the moral superiority and authoritarian poetic voice over our own consciousness and thought. He thinks so low of us as readers that he constantly reminds us on almost every page that we lack the forethought and understanding to engage in our own political system and comprehend the poetic form all at the same time with biasedly placed footnotes that cherry pick the sins of Dumpty and his administration that should be accepted without discussion or objection. The scribblings of artwork that are supposed to fabricate the likeness of named names doesn’t help either.
The mean-spirited context in which Dumpty and his gang have their characters assassinated is an instant turn off in the poetic medium. It isn’t fun, it doesn’t keep an open mind, and it doesn’t give us something to want to read and finish. Regardless of readers political leanings each poem feels like a chore to get through with the hope that you never have to read them again. The irony is that he tries way too hard to make the slander cleverly comedic, which epically fails in its intent due to unclear plot points marred by childish taunts and recycled news blips for far-left outlets. Having the dumb luck of finding a few root words that rhymed do nothing to help cultivate a point to his limited and slanted perspective that comes off as a random thought lost in the shuffle.
The poetic form is a wonderful medium to express ideas in a safe space as they blossom and thrive into the creations they were destined to be. John Lithgow has bastardized that space, using it as yet another political platform to spread hate, revenge, and dissent within a nation that is heavily divided on political ideology and hinges their personal political beliefs into a cult like collective. Poetry writers and poetry lovers should take high offense with the level of disrespect Lithgow has making a mockery of craft and driving more people away from the medium for the mediocrity that brews from halfhearted poetic attempts such as these.
Dumpty: The Age Of Trump In Verse is currently available in stores and on the internet through several retailers, released by Chronicle Prism. It has also spawned a sequel, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted A Crown.
