Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Great Regulars: Poetry of bad personal feeling,

insult, revenge: It's central to the art. The best-known poem in the category may be Walter Raleigh's epitaph on the Earl of Leicester:

Here lies the noble Warrior that never blunted sword;
Here lies the noble Courtier that never kept his word;
Here lies his Excellency that governed all the state;
Here lies the Lord of Leicester that all the world did hate.

from Robert Pinsky: Slate: Dissed in Verse: The art of the poetic insult.

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