Not Just Fame
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
“Sherril Shell’s Byronesque reproduction of Brooke’s own devising (the one his friends thought revulsive enough to dub ‘Your Favourite Actress’), takes precedence over his poetry.”
Rupert Brooke
Lord Byron
If Brooke himself devised this Byronesque
Arrangement, black and white, then maybe he
Was wiser than the rest. Too Junoesque
In beauty hovering, divinity
Upholding him forever after on
The photo printing paper, this cliché
(Though not cliché because the lovely swan
Is male and not a goddess) shows the way
To view this follower of Byron. Byron, too,
Loved boys and women not quite balanced in
Brooke’s life, but still . . . weighing this profile view
We reckon what this later Byron’s sin
Appears like. Gazing past the photo’s frame
He thought of boys and women, Zeus and fame.
~ Phillip Whidden