"Ballad of the Bard" (or, "Will Hath-not-a-way with Anne")

Will's newlywed wife was distraught,
So A LOVER'S COMPLAINT she upbrought:
"I do WHAT YOU WILL,
AS YOU LIKE IT and still
Thy rod and Falstaff comfort naught."

"If thy MEASURE FOR MEASURE's oblique,
'Tis thy four plays before that be weak
'Spite a fine frontispiece
For the RAPE OF LUCRECE."
Then she brought his bare bodkin to cheek.

"To be or to not!" she did scream.
All the HAMLET could hear it would seem:
"A pill of grim passion
Is not what I fashion
To be A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM!"

Their TWELFTH NIGHT of marriage drew nigh:
"Something Moor," said dear Anne with a sigh.
"If thou shew me the skill
Thou possesseth with quill,
What a merry young wife would be I!"

© Kathleen A. Martin