On Reading Crime and Punishment

Old Moby **** is a right good whale
He really knows how to end a tale
                                           With his tail!
When tedious men give the reader fits
Moby splashes, and dashes ‘em to bits.
But in Saint Petersburg – or Petrograd –
Rodian keeps talking, and that’s too bad,
All about his woes, and his sinful fall;
Alas!  There is no whale to end it all.


(Postscript – I finally finished C & P.  As always with Dostoyevsky, the journey ended in hope)