This poem is taken from PN Review 2, Volume 4 Number 2, January - March 1978.

Biography of the Author

Charles Tomlinson

Or what Rumour and History Compounded
concerning the life of the late Sir John Denham 1615-69

He was born in Dublin, but two years later
before the Foggy Air of that Climate could influence
or any way adulterate his mind,
was brought from thence. Where he went to school
remains uncertain. At Oxford
he continued about three years, being looked upon
as a slow and dreaming young man
and given more to his cards and dice
than to study. After his refusing to pay a debt
to the college recorder and having told him
I never intended that
the President rattled him at a lecture in the chapell:
Thy father the judge he said haz hanged
many an honester man
. It was at college
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