BARBARA LEEDOM: The Merry Month of May Wicked Local 'Tis the Merry Month of May. Goodbye to Poetry Month and welcome to the Merry Month. It comes from, yes, a poem. Lo and behold that the poet lived at about the same time as last week’s subject, Shakespeare. Thomas Dekker wrote the long poem that is filled with merriment and romance and now-outdated English. This is too bad, imho (in my humble opinion, translated from shorthand smartphone text). Why? Because so much of 21st century writing is filled with vulgarities, obscenities, sloppy English and absurdities. It’s refreshing to read a novel, essay, play or poem from another era, dated though the language may sound.