METAPHYSICAL POETS

                     Like Donne and Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, I am
                     A Metaphysical in my own verse,
                     A formalist, as well, who gives a damn
                     About the lyric measures I disburse,
                     That they be musical in beat and rhyme
                     And that the meter and the meaning chime
                     While I consider mysteries and causes
                     Philosophers have pondered through the ages
                     But do so in the shapeliest of clauses
                     As sonorous ruminations fill my pages.
                          Though clever I may be, I realize
                          I still have far to go if I’d be wise.

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