CLASSIC SATIRE

If you are nervous
feed on Sextus Propertius
reaching for Venus
and in lust,just read Catullus
needing a poet's skill
there is the spirit of Virgil,
in your hurting middle ages
diddle Dante's pages,
for more of "Paradise Lost"
passages of Milton crossed,
expanding a confessional
at once Puritan,Catholic
(then secular) Lowell,
wishing to go over
Poe's Gothic path
stop first at Baudelaire
and Rimbaud
or drop a hand
on Bishop,Sextant and Plath
or at a Pound canto,
playing the lyre
or witty liar
the poet's critic
is ready to conspire
slandering a Nero or hero
try writing classic satire.