BEYOND SONNETS

     “Forsooth,” said master Shakespeare on a day,
    “Have done with writing sonnets all the time!
    A greater venture is to pen a play
    With characters and dialogue in rhyme—

    Or without rhyme, in rhythmical blank verse,
    Or even, as occasion calls, in prose,
    And then select my actors and rehearse
    Them in their merriment or woes.

    If I am to give scope to all my powers,
    These ditties must give way to something grand,
    For poesies in the end are merely flowers,
    But drama can an audience command,

         Moving them both to laughter and to tears,
         Ensuring fame that lives in after years.

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