(And all was fair in love and war,)
To read the mariner's ancient rime,
And know what stout Cortez first saw,
Perhaps then we would understand
What Sophocles heard upon the dark Aegean;
And how Agamemnon felt.
Or when, on Dover's cobbled beach
Arnold had his nation knelt
In a moment's soul's reflection.
Plath ate her men like air.
Tantalus served the gods his son.
But to dine with literary kings and queens,
And share their feast, is an honor I've yet won.
