BARD TREK

                      What if the famous Bard were here today
                      And aiming to compose a tragedy,
                      What subject might he find for his new play
                      From these four hundred years of history
                      Since he passed on, now to immortalize,
                      As Hamlet and Macbeth and Lear have done,
                      Or would he think our recent woe defies
                      The scope of tragedy, a task to shun?
                       What would he then apply his genius to?
                       To science fiction, I would speculate,
                       Allowing him to make much more ado
                       About how human beings at last grow great:
                            After our history of being bent,
                            We earn our name, becoming sapient.

*