Funeral baked meats & poor imitations

From the lauded pen of scribe Scott Lynch
Came a post on Hamlet's Father
Days later, while I, still abed
Espied Hamlet upon my shelf
And, between those covers, I found that
The pages now bought laughter to my lips.
A sharp contrast, to be sure
With the listless, lifeless words that I recalled
Reading in my memory's school-hall
And I thence reflect'd on
The way in which time ran.
On how I, once a callow youth
Had changed with time into a man