Cento

In line seven I left out the word ‘shall" - Is that OK when writing a cento or must you use the excerpt exactly?)


            Dressed Down

A Burdock—clawed my Gown—
Who went too near
The Burdock’s Den—
Here I sit
With my shoes mismated.
I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous–
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Lawdy-mercy!
I’s frustrated!

Bad Morning, Langston Hughes; The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
by T. S. Eliot; A Burdock—clawed my Gown, Emily Dickinson