[Allen Tice]

We here who live on poetry and gnaw computers or eat paper know that the really big bucks are readercoin, not cryptocash or even negotiable huge royalties, quite important as those are. In the music world, a performer who uses another’s signature melody when it is still in copyright must pay buckets of ducats to the copyright holder for the honor of “covering” something great. Out of copyright? Listen to “Kismet,” a superb musical whose songs are just about all lifted from the music of the Russian chemist Alexander Borodin. Not to be elitist, but Borodin is beluga caviar and “Kismet” is heavenly munchies. Both are wizard good.

What happens if writer A takes a brilliant signature image from writer B and slides it into something? Does that diminish B or rather create a bridge to be found by the great connoisseurs? Much depends on how good A is. If A is any good, it gives B a further life and deeper interest; if A is mediocre, it elevates B by comparison. B cannot lose.

For example, Shakespeare does not suffer by imitation, whether good or bad. He can only gain. Shakespeare remains terrific. Ditto Elizabeth Browning or Auden.

Imitation is an unforgiving test or a love feast of a sort.

Who would I or you want to gently imitate, even for five great words? My first choice would the equivalent of something extraordinary by say, Richard Wilbur, or the entire theme of a poem by John Updike about bottled sparkling water. Anyway, has anyone yielded to this temptation or has something so good in mind it makes you swoon? What would that be?