 | Pleasant Odes |  |
123
Mr. W. W. Astor.
125
I.
O, thou art fairerThan the evening air
Clad in the beauty
Of a thousand stars!
Which, if I remember rightly,
Is Kit Marlow.
Also, shake!
Which is Bret Harte,
Or any other respectable American author
You care to examine.
126
II.
Do you know,I think there is nothing in nature
So really and interestingly beautiful
As a person possessed of unlimited means—
A person who reckons up his money with a shovel, as it were,
Who is all chips and cheque-book,
Who is smiled upon fatly at banks,
And whose Income regards his Expenditure
With pity, scorn, and contempt.
127
III.
You, I am given to understand,Are a person of this type:
Hence it comes to pass
That you have my entire approval,
And that I desire to hand you down to posterity
As a fit subject for odes.
128
IV.
When you emigrated to this countryYou did a wise thing:
We have vacancies for any number of plutocrats
Over here.
You purchased a newspaper
And a magazine:
These are now edited
By the nobility and gentry,
To the immense advantage and satisfaction
Of the proletariat.
You own a place called Cliveden, Bucks,
Formerly the property of the Duke of Westminster.
You did not give a certain dinner
At which innumerable reporters were privileged to be present;
But you have made up for it
By taking out a certificate
Of naturalisation.
129
V.
Which last likes me particularly:It is the thin end of the wedge,
And, being a seer as well as a poet,
I discover great meanings in it.
Prophecy seldom brings a man credit,
Yet it is safe to hint
That if President McKinley,
And Admiral Dewey,
And Colonel Rooseveldt,
And Mr. Croker,
Were to follow your example,
All good Americans might do likewise;
In which case
The Anglo-Saxon Alliance
Would come off with a vengeance.
130
VI.
Further, don't you agree with me when I sayThat the best thing that can happen to a man
Is to have a father?
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