Of Dramatic Poesy

“Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets; Jonson was the Virgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare.”–  John Dryden (1631-1700).

Shakespeare,
with whom, of course, we must begin,
Was a massive soul
(that clenches)
Not satisfied that you should see
But that you must also feel
The cypress rise above the bending shrubs.

Jonson, strong and sullen and saturnine
Robbing foreign bodies like a conqueror,
Wrote to life mechanic people,
And, frugally witty, gave them
heads and hearts and liquid courage.

Ben was that mountain
Bill cuts through like a river.