The very act of writing leaves every poet vulnerable to parody, but some seem irresistible. T S Eliot parody is almost a genre in itself, with Wendy Cope's 'Waste Land Limericks' perhaps the best-known recent example. Cope is an expert parodist; her 'Strugnell's Haiku' finds delicious humour in the clumsy attempts of her invented wannabe poet, Jason Strugnell, to engage with the delicacy of the traditional Japanese form.
'The Passionate Pupil Declaring Love' is a gentle parody on an Elizabethan poem, 'The Passionate Shepherd to His Love' by Christopher Marlowe. The first line of the original, "Come live with me and be my love" is one of the most famous in English poetry. Andrew Fusek Peters is in good company: the Marlowe poem has provoked many responses over the centuries, including a poem by John Donne called 'The Bait' which borrowed that famous opening line.
