“Life in the House of Fame”

[Stanza 1 of part II]

“Life In the House of Fame”
II.1
Some spend a life with Fame and some a day.
One calls it “home”; another’s passing by.
I know how people come, but why they stay
Or go and why they rent a room or buy
A suite are riddles causing me dismay.
Some stars are buried there the day they die,
While others with equal shares of “gifts” to give
Depart quite long before they’ve ceased to live.

The stanza is likely more enjoyable in context:

https://paulwhitberg.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/an-introductory-guide-to-becoming-rich-and-famous-2/

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“An Offer of Immortality”

A brief dialogue between a poet and his love–by Paul Burgess [In response to Shakespeare, “Sonnet 18”]*

“My dear, immortal’s what you’d surely be—
Preserved forever through these lines of verse.”

“To share Criseyde or Helen’s infamy?
What poets know as ‘fame’, I’d call a curse.”

*from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”

…in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.