The Greats Are Gone

There are scanty men of tasty rhyme. Shakespeare is dead and Marlow has gone with time, Tennyson is under the soil and Holmes is no more; Bunyan will never live again, and where is Poe? I miss the verse of Nahum Tate, A man stolen by the tides of fate. I wish I could behold the mien of Coleridge, Or see Longfellow musing upon a lonely bridge! Now the uncoursed apprentices of this superior art Have been left to dash hither and thither, Knowing not which word to choose, Chasing in vain some erratic Muse. They say that little boats ought to keep the shore And that larger ones may venture more. I vote to labor on hot days and lonely nights, I choose to rob myself of sleep and such basic rights And attempt to fill these gaping gaps. I seek no gain on this sorrowful earth, I labour to earn some mystic mirth When warmed by the blissful wings of death; When its vanished the deceitful pride of breath. Let no man recognize me for my plaintive works While I'm on this earth of muddy murks!