 | The Absent-Minded Mule |  |
30
To a Great Poet.
I hear of thee at stylish clubs,
Or banqueting with witty peers,
And note I'm named once more by Stubbs,
That worthiest of gazetteers.
Or banqueting with witty peers,
And note I'm named once more by Stubbs,
That worthiest of gazetteers.
Thy published works at three-and-six
Go off, they tell me, by the heap;
On mine the careful huckster sticks
A hesitating ‘4d. cheap.’
Go off, they tell me, by the heap;
On mine the careful huckster sticks
A hesitating ‘4d. cheap.’
And having drachmas thou may'st roam
To nurse, on joys, a noble rage,
While I sit squalidly at home
And sweat for half-a-crown a page.
To nurse, on joys, a noble rage,
While I sit squalidly at home
And sweat for half-a-crown a page.
What wonder that our rhymes don't run
Quite in the same imperial sort—
Thou, fixed up in the affluent sun,
I, shivering in the County Court?
Quite in the same imperial sort—
Thou, fixed up in the affluent sun,
I, shivering in the County Court?
| The Absent-Minded Mule | |