 | Poems by John Godfrey Saxe. Complete in one volume : thirty-fifth edition |  |
But lest the Muse should give her hearers pain
By overstraining her heroic strain,—
A metre strong and well contrived, in sooth,
To bear full measures of satiric truth,
But rather grave, and something apt to tire
Those ears perverse that love an easy lyre,—
She'll drop the proud heroic for a while
For a new topic and a nimbler style,
And, just for change, endeavor to unfold
The shining treasures of the Land of Gold!
By overstraining her heroic strain,—
A metre strong and well contrived, in sooth,
To bear full measures of satiric truth,
But rather grave, and something apt to tire
Those ears perverse that love an easy lyre,—
She'll drop the proud heroic for a while
For a new topic and a nimbler style,
And, just for change, endeavor to unfold
The shining treasures of the Land of Gold!
| Poems by John Godfrey Saxe. Complete in one volume : thirty-fifth edition | |