Sunday Poetry XVI' -- THE EPIGRAM and an EPITAPH

Epitaph

Timothy Steele

Here lies Sir Tact, a diplomatic fellow

Whose silence was not golden, but just yellow.

Epigram Engraved on the Collar

of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal

Highness

Alexander Pope

I am his Highness' dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

Readers and Listeners Praise

My Books

Martial

Readers and listeners praise my books;

You swear they're worse than a beginners.

Who cares?  I always plan my dinners

To please the diners, not the cooks.

Of Treason

Sir John Harrington

Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?

For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Moderation

Robert Herrick

In things a moderation keep,

Kings ought to shear, not skin their sheep.

Her Whole Life is an Epigram

William Blake

Her whole life is an epigram: smack smooth, and neatly penned,

Platted quite neat to catch applause, with a sliding noose at the end.

A Politician

E.E. Cummings

a politician is an arse upon

which everyone has sat except a man

Prayer

Langston Hughes

Oh, God of dust and rainbows, help us see

That without dust the rainbow would not be.

This Humanist Whom no Beliefs Constrained

J.V. Cunningham

This Humanist whom no beliefs constrained

Grew so broad-minded he was scatter-brained.

Jamesian

Thom Gunn

Their relationship consisted

In discussing if it existed.

A Venus Flytrap

Brad Leithauser

The humming fly is turned to carrion

This vegetable's no vegetarian.

Fatigue

Hilaire Beloc

I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.

But Money gives me pleasure all the time.

Variation of Belloc's "Fatigue"

Wendy Cope

I hardly ever tire of love or rhyme--

That's why I'm poor and have a rotten time.

Taken from Literature; An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama; Seventh Edition