FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292  
293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   >>   >|  
pound. With a hymn for the saints and a song for the sinners, You go and are welcome wherever you please; You're a privileged guest at all manner of dinners, You've a seat on the platform among the grandees. At length your mere presence becomes a sensation, Your cup of enjoyment is filled to its brim With the pleasure Horatian of digitmonstration, As the whisper runs round of "That's he!" or "That Is him!" But remember, O dealer in phrases sonorous, So daintily chosen, so tunefully matched, Though you soar with the wings of the cherubim o'er us, The ovum was human from which you were hatched. No will of your own with its puny compulsion Can summon the spirit that quickens the lyre; It comes, if at all, like the Sibyl's convulsion And touches the brain with a finger of fire. So perhaps, after all, it's as well to be quiet, If you've nothing you think is worth saying in prose, As to furnish a meal of their cannibal diet To the critics, by publishing, as you propose. But it's all of no use, and I 'm sorry I've written,-- I shall see your thin volume some day on my shelf; For the rhyming tarantula surely has bitten, And music must cure you, so pipe it yourself. UNSATISFIED "ONLY a housemaid!" She looked from the kitchen,-- Neat was the kitchen and tidy was she; There at her window a sempstress sat stitching; "Were I a sempstress, how happy I'd be!" "Only a Queen!" She looked over the waters,-- Fair was her kingdom and mighty was she; There sat an Empress, with Queens for her daughters; "Were I an Empress, how happy I'd be!" Still the old frailty they all of them trip in! Eve in her daughters is ever the same; Give her all Eden, she sighs for a pippin; Give her an Empire, she pines for a name! May 8, 1876. HOW THE OLD HORSE WON THE BET DEDICATED BY A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE COLLEGIAN, 1830, TO THE EDITORS OF THE HARVARD ADVOCATE, 1876. 'T WAS on the famous trotting-ground, The betting men were gathered round From far and near; the "cracks" were there Whose deeds the sporting prints declare The swift g. m., Old Hiram's nag, The fleet s. h., Dan Pfeiffer's brag, With these a third--and who is he That stands beside his fast b. g.? Budd Doble, whose catarrhal name So fills the nasal trump of fame. There too stood many a noted steed Of Messenger and Morgan breed; Green horses also, not a few; Unknown as yet what they could do; And all the hacks that know so well The scour
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292  
293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
sempstress
 

looked

 

kitchen

 

Empress

 

daughters

 

CONTRIBUTOR

 

COLLEGIAN

 

DEDICATED

 

EDITORS

 
kingdom

mighty

 

Queens

 

waters

 

window

 

stitching

 

frailty

 

pippin

 
Empire
 
HARVARD
 
cracks

catarrhal

 

Messenger

 

Unknown

 

Morgan

 

horses

 

gathered

 

famous

 

trotting

 
betting
 

ground


sporting
 
prints
 

Pfeiffer

 
stands
 
declare
 
ADVOCATE
 

dealer

 

phrases

 
sonorous
 
chosen

daintily
 

remember

 

digitmonstration

 
Horatian
 
whisper
 

tunefully

 

matched

 

hatched

 

Though

 

cherubim