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When life is young

a collection of verse for boys and girls

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15

THE POET WHO COULD N'T WRITE POETRY

Mr. Tennyson Tinkleton Tupper von Burns
Was no poet, as every one knew;
But the fact that he had his poetical turns
Was well understood by a few.
“I long, I aspire, and I suffer and sigh
When the fever is on,” he confessed;
“Yet never a line have I writ,—and for why?
My fancies can not be expressed!
“Ah, what avail language, ink, paper, and quill,
When the soul of a gifted one yearns?
Could I write what I feel, all creation would thrill,”
Said Tennyson Tupper von Burns.