Lord Lilac thought it rather rotten <br />That Shakespeare should be quite forgotten, <br />And therefore got on a Committee <br />With several chaps out of the City, <br />And Shorter and Sir Herbert Tree, <br />Lord Rothschild and Lord Rosebery, <br />And F.C.G. and Comyn Carr <br />Two dukes and a dramatic star, <br />Also a clergy man now dead; <br />And while the vain world careless sped <br />Unheeding the heroic name -- <br />The souls most fed with Shakespeare's flame <br />Still sat unconquered in a ring, <br />Remembering him like anything. <br /> <br />Lord Lilac did not long remain, <br />Lord Lilac did not some again. <br />He softly lit a cigarette <br />And sought some other social set <br />Where, in some other knots or rings, <br />People were doing cultured things. <br />-- Miss Zwilt's Humane Vivarium <br />-- The little men that paint on gum <br />-- The exquisite Gorilla Girl . . . <br />He sometimes, in this giddy whirl <br />(Not being really bad at heart), <br />Remembered Shakespeare with a start -- <br />But not with that grand constancy <br />Of Clement Shorter, Herbert Tree, <br />Lord Rosebery and Comyn Carr <br />And all the other names there are; <br />Who stuck like limpets to the spot, <br />Lest they forgot, lest they forgot. <br /> <br />Lord Lilac was of slighter stuff; <br />Lord Lilac had had quite enough.<br /><br />Gilbert Keith Chesterton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-shakespeare-memorial/
