Good readers make good writers

O laith, laith were our gude Scots lords
To wat their cork-heeled shoon,
But lang or ere the play was played,
They wat their hats abune.

(Sir Patrick Spens, Anon)

At quarter to six the old cook came on deck,
Saying: fellows, it's too rough to feed you.
At seven p.m. a main hatchway caved in,
He said: fellows, it's been good to know you.

(The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot)

Moral? Not sure really - if it worked once it'll work again in a new setting? Or maybe: however contemporary you are, the more you read, and are aware of what's been done in the past, the more resonance you can create by using its echoes?

Great song, anyway.