Also not the one you're looking for, but it's about literature— specifically, about having a gift for it.


A Classical Quatrain

by Paul Goodman


For rage and dignity no words compare
with the Atlantic Ocean lashed by winds;
the love-gestures of juveniles are sweeter
than any words of mine. But for alcaic

speed and in the end a pat surprise
you must read Horace. John, the fertile fields
and the repetitive factories produce,
though many other things, no metaphors.

Sure, many a labor is heavier to do
and profit by than stanzas, but these are
my skill, shall I ungratefully
my gift of formal speech disdain?

By literature Sheharazad a thousand
midnights his prone violence appeased,
the homicidal hurry in his soul
embarrassed into an uncertain smile.