Poets and Monarchs as Would-be Lovers

What happens when a poet and a king Both fall in love and desperately desire The same young woman or young man.  They bring Their  hearts to him, the color of Greek fire, Or to the girl.  We have examples of This.  Polycrates, tyrant king, adored A lad, one Smerdies.  He caused other love, Anacreon’s as well.  Both men felt gored

By  Smerdies’s hair, when it was long or short. Sir Thomas Wyatt wanted Anne Boleyn As England’s Henry did.  (Why do men court

A titless tart?)  Perhaps they loved her chin. They’re hopeless lover losers, both, those crowns And bardsters.  All are doomed to moan-shaped frowns.