The School of Abuse

“Now, for the poet, he nothing affirms, and therefore never lieth.”– Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

The schoolmaster of rank abuse goes on and on

Only quelled by songs of Astrophil and Stella

And still he won’t admit when oh so clearly wrong

Philip is a hero, gent, and lovely fella

Now school is out, we learn by imitating song

Magpie, thrush, and warbler conversate in solfa

And thus the goodness for which we must always long

Plants its roots inside our soul’s unfurled umbrella

And this makes me the witness of the ages past

Truth’s light, life of mem’ry’s cobwebbed attic mistress

Ventriloquising pictures: that will make them last

Teaching and delighting, distract all from distress

For all the brittle bricks in Kath Hekaston’s wall

Must crack and tremble at the great Katholou’s call