LOAD ON A GRECIAN URN

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” –John Keats

On the john, just the other day,
I was reflecting on what John say….
And, in the end, what I came to find
Became a big load off my mind.

For, sacrilege though it be to say,
John’s words work better the other way:
“Truth is beauty, beauty truth” —
To believe ’tis untrue would be uncouth.

But be wary, if others feign claim
My aim is to put John Keats to shame.
Far be it from me to disparage the master —
His ode, you see, is hardly a disaster.

But if I can improve its beauty, where’s the disgrace?
Would you not do the same, were you in my place?
To muse that I’m above Keats is ode-ious to me —
I am merely his equal, as any Greek geek can see.