VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 20171, 6 May 1927, Page 6

VAGRANT VERSE

THE ORETI ANTHOLOGY. (Written for the Southland Times.) 80. —Ben Jonson. When your master, Will Shakspere, died, You wrote a poem to his memory, You, the author of plays, essays, poems, A successful writer and scholar With a somewhat shady past. You wrote of a man you knew— And quite unconsciously achieved The world's greatest memorial verses, And the only authentic portrait Of mankind’s mightiest poet. To-day your verses ring clear Beyond the mouldy libraries, Tiers and tiers of laborious books Written around the Bard of Avon.— Your lines arc a poetic miracle, And a wonderful prophesy. While you Ben, bricklayer, laureate, scoundrel, When you, also died, Your bones were buried in the Abbey With a tablet inscribed: * “O Rare Ben Jonson.” The world’s finest epitaph, And every word of it the truth. Southerner. Invercargill, May 5.