ACQUAINTED

People in my poems apparently know each other 

And may well understand me better than I do them.

There used to be, of course, strict laws about such things;

The characters of different poems could not, officially,

Mix nor make comments about their creators. 

When the ghost of Arthur Henry Hallam

Wanted to visit Mariana in the moated grange 

He had to disguise himself as a beekeeper

Who spoke with a comically thick Suffolk accent

Readers when he was by wondered what this bumpkin

Was doing in the poem -- there seemed to be

No other servants; the grange was extremely dusty

(As a tragic heroine Mariana was, under guild rules,

Forbidden to do any housework.) Most, though,

Were pleased Mariana had someone to listen

To her disquisitions on the dreariness of life.