Friday Poetry: Wendy Cope

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has exciting plans for the weekend. I have a family get together on Saturday and an actual day off on Sunday.

My chosen poem this week is by the English poet Wendy Cope (1945).

Shakespeare at School

Forty boys on benches with their quills,
Six days a week through almost all the year,
Long hours of Latin with relentless drills
And repetition, all enforced by fear.
I picture Shakespeare sitting near the back,
Indulging in a risky bit of fun
By exercising his prodigious knack
Of thinking up an idiotic pun,
And whispering his gem to other boys,
Some of whom could not suppress their mirth - 
Behaviour that unfailingly annoys
Any teacher anywhere on earth
The fun was over when the master spoke:
Will Shakespeare, come up here and share the joke.

Wendy Cope

Happy Reading