Dash it all, Roger, that's brilliant!

I didn't write that, Jayne. Wish I had though.

Awake! For morning on the hills of Persia
Hath roused the boozy poet from inertia.
My life is short, and daily getting shorter.
God, send me more young girls to share it, curse yer.

I love the rhymes, John, and it all has the ring of truth - except for one line.

Assuming for the sake of argument that I may consider myself some kind of poet, I doubt whether even the Persian morning could rouse me from my boozy inertia.

Who's to know, Roger?

O my Luve would be a red, red rose
If roses did not die
Within a week but stayed in bloom
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Excuse me, mouse. I didn't mean
To startle you or wreck your house,
But life has way of messing up
The best-laid schemes of man and mouse.

We should market these to high school students. They're better than Spark Notes.

The Concise Homer

For Helen's affair
retribution was swift.
The moral: beware
of Greeks bearing gifts.


Odysseus fought foes
and monsters horrific, a
decade or so,
then went home to Ithaca.

The World Is Too Much With Us

The world is too much with us,
With all of its getting and spending.
I’m sick of it. I am no pagan,
But sometimes I feel like pretending.

Dirge Without Music (Millay)

All of us will die, it' true.
It blows my freakin' mind.
It might be quite alright with you,
But I am not resigned.