Rigours of the Academy

poem by Matthew de Lacey Davidson

Chancellor Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, Photo: Andreas Praefcke (source: Wikipedia — used according to terms)

There once was a substantive poet
successful (at last), and he lectured on how to bestow it:
“To express feelings, strong —
in poetry’s wrong —
your thoughts must be shallow — or you’ll blow it!”

With regards to both meter and rhyme
the two he’d prefer to beslime.
So harshly he’d scold:
“You know that that’s old-
fashioned — an execrable crime!”