Hello again Grasshopper,
                        This is another very accomplished piece. The only thing I find myself hesitating over is the word `extracted´ in line 11 where I want to read `exacted´ even though it would trouble your syllable count. I don´t even really know why I mention it because I´m sure you have a good explanation for your choice of the word.


Best wishes,   Mike



> 
> Lähettäjä: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
> Päiväys: 2003/09/28 su PM 12:49:59 GMT+03:00
> Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> Aihe: New sub: The Biographer
> 
> The Biographer
> 
> How hard it is to write of death, when Death
> stands at your rounded shoulder, bending near
> as if to read the words. True, in the breadth
> of mortal shocks, a death is nothing rare
> 
> yet you have lingered on his early life,
> his word-plays, wit, and fame : the fairy-tale.
> And how he sparkled, like refracted light
> mosaic-ed on a Monarch's wing - and just as frail.
> 
> One lapse would brush him down to earth, and pin
> him flat. Now follow that descent, record
> the toll extracted by his fatal whim,
> his end, no longer feted or adored.
> 
> You pen the final words: your subject's done;
> Death dries your page with sand, and whispers, Come.
> 
>                                                       (grasshopper)
>