To the Ghost of Ben Jonson

[lnhammer]

Your epigrams may not have bettered Martial
But next to mine they ring like perfect chimes;
And if your royal James was not so partial
To flattery, at least he read your rhymes.

I don't know whether Clinton is well-read,
Though by his character I fear the worst,
Yet were he, since the published poem is dead,
He'll never see my praise nor hear he's cursed.

—17 March 1995

Cf. Jonson's epigram #36.

---L.

Comments

[rymenhild]

Now I, too, find myself regretting the decline of the power of the epigram.

[lnhammer]

I sold this one to a magazine devoted to epigrams that folded before printing it. (Fortunately another devoted to light verse took it.)

---L.