"Definitely, deftly Warp-and-weftly woven in!" Laughed the late alliterator Who had only just come in As the punchline from the poet Was delivered with a grin The epic ode concluded And the poet took a bow As the audience exhaled With a universal "Wow!" They were poets in the circle Poets crammed the stalls Overflowed into the aisles And filled the air With curtain calls Poets sold the ice creams And there were poets in the booth Who would only sell you tickets If you agreed to tell the truth This was poetry for poets And everyone was there Because all people were poets It was a universal flair That belonged to everybody And everybody used it Cos the Muse popped In for cups of tea And no one dared refuse It Shakespeare chats to Eminen Kae Tempest sits with de la Mare There are poets disregarded And poets never heard (Because being an unknown poet Isn't usually deserved) A smorgasbord of poets! A banquet! And a feast! Poems to suit every taste With more stacked underneath The tables, which were heaving With the piles of stacked up stanzas Swarmed on by the poets In their velvets And organzas, who were hungry Ever hungry For more nibbles they could sample Word quiches they could cook themselves By following examples This was the Age of Poets! The art was high esteemed People treasured verses And every schoolchild's dream Was to become a Laureate (In those days, there were lots And dosh was lavished onto them In little golden pots) Because everyone loved poetry They knew what it could do Reading out one's poetry And it being read to you Brought transformation Transvision And healing all in one Forgiveness and forbearance And ways to get things done It made no sense at all of course So people stopped being senseless Rationality was rationed So that folks could be defenceless And that allowed the poetry To sneak in past the sentries Who had always raised a bayonet When love tried to gain entry The world transformed By simple words It was a sight to see But the performance was a dream one And the audience Only sleeping me