Though Spenser lays the senior poet's claim,
As sonneteer with interlocking rhyme,
Upon the scene that upstart Shakespeare came,
And simplified the sonnet for all time.

No doubt the older man eschewed the crime,
Unlacing his three stanzas from their stays,
But Willy did not give a silver dime
For fuddy-duddy Spencer's strictured ways.

And thus, since Socrates in ancient days,
Young men have undermined establishment.
Their elders think it just a passing phase
Until they realise its true extent.

Come, Edmund Spenser, leave the sonnet scene!
I far prefer your famous Faerie Queen.