Classics and Commercials

With the dumbing down of America,the most desirable quality in a manuscript, whether in prose or verse, will soon be its suitability for spin-offs of games and clothes, and films and television, and for advertising of all kinds. In time to come, if the classics are ever reprinted at all, they will certainly be edited for commercial
correctness.



To An Athlete Dying Young But in Fashion

by A. E. Housman

Bright lad, you wore your Nikes
On the day you ran your race;
You croaked far from the finish,
But you led the pack in grace.

Now the lassies, as they mourn you,
Forget your eye and its hues,
But they avow that never in Shropshire,
Did a corpse wear such fabulous shoes.