Shakespeare's 76th sonnet
anagrammed into a paraphrase (up to a point), its theme being the Baconian controversy.
In the argument over the authorship of Shakespeare's works, one of the 'real' authors that
was suggested was Sir Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and essayist. The anagram is
not only written from Bacon's point of view, but contains 2 further clues. Can you find
them? |
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Shakespeare's Seventy-Sixth Sonnet
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
O! Know sweet love I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
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Sham Poem
I find there's nothing novel in my ode:
Rhymes dwindle, pen doth wander without will;
For weeks and more the Muses that once flowed
Regress tremendously and hurt my skill.
Anxiety is woven in my snag:
Now too strong a lie, it's increasingly
Close to a state where new words always lag;
I'd rather quit than type few without glee!
Still, I'd observe - that ploy, well laid and knit,
Boasts alias so cunning and high-browed;
As patrons are men ever void of wit,
Charade may yet pass masked, yet praise-endowed...
One tension yields, for, with that yarn involved,
No one's so wise to have my riddle solved!
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