Sunday, 2 April 2023

Theodorous says I shouldn't write poetry until I've studied the last thousand years

Theodorous says I shouldn't write poetry
until I've studied the last thousand years

of the canon, learnt it     off by heart
and can quote it at random, and imitate it

before attempting my own stuff, and he says
it's imperative I start with hendecasyllables

a la Pliny Jr, but I retaliated, saying
I found the lot of it B-O-R-I-N-G

B. Evaristo, The Emperor's babe (2001), 83-84

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