Seneca

 As a philosopher, Seneca promoted

Maintaining tranquility in the face of trauma,

However as a playwright he emoted

All over the stage with tragic bloody drama. 

Scholars question which is the truer side,

But I imagine equal parts of a whole:

The stoic Jekyll and the dramatic Hyde

Springing together from one tormented soul.

Stopping by the Library on a Frantic Evening

Whose words these are, I think I know, 

Some author who died years ago! 

He will not see me cut and paste 

His paragraphs in horrid haste. 

My paper’s due in twenty hours, 

And it’s beyond my paltry powers 

To write the whole darn thing myself. 

But here are books upon the shelf - 

Upon the topics I’m supposed 

To explicate in lucid prose… 

And I prefer to see quotations, 

Without the clutter of citations! 

For I have many pages due, 

And hours to go before I’m through.