The Poetical Works of Andrew Lang Edited by Mrs. Lang |
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To
Louisa Viscountess Wolseley
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 | The Poetical Works of Andrew Lang |  |
162
To Louisa Viscountess Wolseley
Madame, it is no modish thing,
The bookman's tribute that I bring;
A talk of antiquaries gray,
Dust unto dust this many a day,
Gossip of texts and bindings old,
Of faded type, and tarnish'd gold!
The bookman's tribute that I bring;
A talk of antiquaries gray,
Dust unto dust this many a day,
Gossip of texts and bindings old,
Of faded type, and tarnish'd gold!
Can ladies care for this to-do
With Payne, Derome, and Padeloup?
Can they resign the rout, the ball,
For lonely joys of shelf and stall?
With Payne, Derome, and Padeloup?
Can they resign the rout, the ball,
For lonely joys of shelf and stall?
The critic thus serenely wise;
But you can read with other eyes,
Whose books and bindings treasured are
'Midst mingled spoils of peace and war;
Shields from the fights the Mahdi lost,
And trinkets from the Golden Coast,
And many a thing divinely done
By Chippendale and Sheraton,
And trophies of Egyptian deeds,
And fans, and plates, and aggrey beads,
Pomander boxes, assegais,
And sword-hilts worn in Marlbro's days.
But you can read with other eyes,
Whose books and bindings treasured are
'Midst mingled spoils of peace and war;
Shields from the fights the Mahdi lost,
And trinkets from the Golden Coast,
And many a thing divinely done
By Chippendale and Sheraton,
163
And fans, and plates, and aggrey beads,
Pomander boxes, assegais,
And sword-hilts worn in Marlbro's days.
In this abode of old and new,
Of war and peace, my essays, too,
For long in serials tempest-tost,
Are landed now, and are not lost:
Nay, on your shelf secure they lie,
As in the amber sleeps the fly.
'Tis true, they are not ‘rich nor rare’;
Enough, for me, that they are—there!
Of war and peace, my essays, too,
For long in serials tempest-tost,
Are landed now, and are not lost:
Nay, on your shelf secure they lie,
As in the amber sleeps the fly.
'Tis true, they are not ‘rich nor rare’;
Enough, for me, that they are—there!
| The Poetical Works of Andrew Lang | |