Asimov laments how science fiction just isn’t fun anymore.

In the 1950’s, Asimov did a number of science fiction-y parodies of songs from various Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Two of them appear in Earth is Room Enough: “The Author’s Ordeal,” and “The Foundation of SF Success.”

This poem was published in the January 1958 issue of The Original Science Fiction Stories and so was slightly too late for inclusion in Earth is Room Enough. In this case, the poem is modeled on “When Britain Really Ruled the Waves” from Iolanthe.

For two verses, Asimov matches the mood of the original perfectly and talks about how wonderful it was back in the days of Hugo (Gernsback) and Orlin (Tremaine). What keeps this from being a full three spaceships-and-suns parody is the last verse. It’s marvelous as sour-grapes, but it is something of a let-down and has some scansion problems, too.