The overeducated Left
Have lost their way again
Shakespeare, and his narrow views
Will have no place at Penn
His portrait has been taken
From the spot where it once hung
No more his visage, studied.
No more his sonnets sung
The faculty, three years ago
Decided this was right
Though they left it to the students
To remove it in the night
In the story where I learned of this
No lecturer was quoted
Perhaps they were embarrassed
By the act for which they voted
The Chair of the Department
Sent the media a text
Promising a forum
To decide what happens next
I hope they find a clever way
To slow or stop their skid
And I forgive the students
For they know not what they did
Pardon my opinion
If I sound a wee bit preachy
But saying that the Bard is dead
Would even outrage Nietzsche
You say he’s not diverse enough. To that I answer, “Really?”
Available in Farsi, Esperanto and Swahili
And though his education wasn’t quite as vast as yours
He wrote about Egyptians, Romans, Even Scotts and Moors
Shakespeare was the heavyweight, the rest on only welter
If you don’t want to handle that, go find someplace to shelter
Perhaps my overt scolding could be just a little rough
Not reading from the canon may be punishment enough.
