TIMBRE! LOL, Jerome.
Here's an old one of mine (I was playing around with combining rondel with ghazal) - first 2 lines from John Ashbery:
Ashbery is of two minds about the opera
I.
If only a phantom would stop reappearing!
Business, if you wanted to know, was punk at the opera.
Read the reviews to see whether the show is a flop or a
hit. Though the latter, of course, would be cheering,
the former is more like the outcome I'm fearing.
My stomach is all aflutter with lepidoptera.
If only a phantom would stop reappearing!
Business, as you probably know, was punk at the opera.
In places I thought the performance was searing.
Marguerite's "Jewel Song" was a show-stopper, a
tour de force. I'd better make a note to drop her a
line. That will help her to keep persevering.
If only that phantom would stop reappearing!
_________
II.
If only a phantom would stop reappearing!
Business, if you wanted to know, was punk at the opera.
So awful, in fact, that I got drunk at the opera.
The big fat soprano was so domineering
I felt I was lucky to be hard of hearing.
I beg you, don't ask me what I thunk of the opera.
If only a phantom would stop reappearing!
Business, as I said before, was punk at the opera.
It's nearing the end of its run, which is cheering.
You probably think that I shouldn't debunk the opera,
but I'm the sort who has always shrunk from the opera.
So I left, and at once my head started clearing.
(If only that phantom would stop reappearing!)
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