WHY did not Fate to me bequeath an Utterance Elizabethan? It would have been delight to me If @3natus ante 1603@1. My stuff would not be soon forgotten If I could write like Harry Wotton. I wish that I could wield the pen Like William Drummond of Hawthornden. I would not fear the ticking clock If I were Browne of Tavistock. For blithe conceits I would not worry If I were Raleigh, or the Earl of Surrey. I wish (I hope I am not silly?) That I could juggle words like Lyly. I envy many a lyric champion, I. e., viz., e. g., Thomas Campion. I creak my rhymes up like a derrick, I ne'er will be a Robin Herrick. My wits are dull as an old Barlow -- I wish that I were Christopher Marlowe. In short, I'd like to be Philip Sidney, Or some one else of that same kidney. For if I were, my lady's looks And all my lyric special pleading Would be in all the future books, And called, at college, @3Required Reading@1. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 18 by JAMES JOYCE THE FUN HOUSE FABLE by KAREN SWENSON INSCRIPTIONS: 1. FOR A GROTTO by MARK AKENSIDE TERMINUS (1) by RALPH WALDO EMERSON EASTER WINGS by GEORGE HERBERT SONNET: WRITTEN ON THE DAY THAT MR. LEIGH HUNT LEFT PRISON by JOHN KEATS |