Fortunatus' Song
Author: first_name: Alfred
last_name: Austin
Language: English
Year: 1892

Not all of the English poets laureate have been the greatest masters of verse.  Alfred Austin,  who assumed this post after Alfred Lord Tennyson, was one of the less distinguished - if more prolific - late Victorian poets.  In modern times,  his verse has become celebrated not for its smooth earnestness, but rather for the occasional howlers it contains.  A notable example is this song from his pastoral epic Fortunatus the Pessimist, the final couplet of which is a popular favourite in anthologi