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Notes About The Poem

Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system.

{Quotes]

Dragline: Oh Luke, you wild, beautiful thing. You crazy handful of nothin'.
Luke: Oh come on. Stop beatin' it. Get out there yourself. Stop feedin' off me. Get out of here. I can't breathe. Give me some air. (response to challenge of swallowing 50 boiled eggs whole)

Listen to poem:

The Cool Jester Sad Within

Always playing the fool, belittles self to buffoon.
Cap with bells belies the deep sad truth within.
Like blue-black ink squirts from octopus threatened,
    joking is a smoke-screen hiding deep-seated inadequacy,
    made worse by audience's insatiable need for jokes.
Like 'Cool Hand Luke', the jester, always in demand,
    when really pressed, spurts out: "Stop feedin' off me".

funnygrook

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