180
Sonnets From Other Lives: Dr. Lear

The seminar eventually convenes,
although attendance is unusually low.
On a warm spring day a talk on Ancient Greek
drama fails draw a crowd. Although
Professor Lear is known in certain circles
for her scholastic prowess in the field,
her undergraduates don’t read the journals,
& Sophocles comes off as too unreal
for their world of snap gratification.
Recently widowed, she hopes her course reveals
to her students a hard won observation:
Eventually all of us come to see
that we are heroes cast in our own tragedy.