Two Versions of an Epitaph

The U.S. has been inundated with a huge amount of extremely bad poetry for a very long time. In 1975, four years after I wrote "Let's Eat Some Time, Baby" (see yesterday's posting), I wrote an epitaph in the form of an epigram for the delusional would-be poets of the hippie generation who thought ingesting chemicals would help them to write great poetry. "Young Dylan" is, of course, Bob Dylan (whose songs I greatly admire), and "Prelude" refers to the William Wordsworth poem of that title:

Epitaph for a Generation of Counterculture Poetasters

While zonked on cocaine, acid, meth and quaalude,
Young Dylan’s heirs sat down to write their Prelude.

Recently I revised this poem to extend the epitaph backwards in time in order to bring under its umbrella the lousy poets of the Beat Generation, who in a very real sense jump-started this deluge of crummy poetry. However, I want to point out that a number of excellent poets are sometimes or often classified as "Beat Poets" (Diane DiPrima, Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, among others). This epitaph is not intended to include them. Also note that, if you haven't already guessed, "Old Dylan" is Dylan Thomas, whose poetry I adore.

Epitaph For Two Generations Of Counterculture Poetasters

While zonked on cocaine, acid, meth and quaalude,
Old Dylan’s heirs sat down to write their Prelude.