[Tim McGrath]

Short of being eulogized by a classical Greek or Roman poet, I think Allen would have preferred these lines to the ones I quoted earlier from Gray's 'Elegy.'

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell.

That "surly sullen bell" gets me every time. Not that Allen was ever surly or sullen, but I think he would have identified with the stanza.