Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BALLADE OF NEGLECTED MERIT, by ANDREW LANG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BALLADE OF NEGLECTED MERIT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have scribbled in verse and in prose
Last Line: "but—I am not in ""men of the time!"
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Poetry & Poets


I HAVE scribbled in verse and in prose,
I have painted "arrangements in greens,"
And my name is familiar to those
Who take in the high class magazines;
I compose; I've invented machines;
I have written an "Essay on Rhyme";
For my county I played, in my teens,
But—I am not in "Men of the Time!"

I have lived, as a chief, with the Crows;
I have "interviewed" Princes and Queens;
I have climbed the Caucasian snows;
I abstain, like the ancients, from beans,—
I've a guess what Pythagoras means
When he says that to eat them's a crime,—
I have lectured upon the Essenes,
But—I am not in "Men of the Time!"

I've a fancy as morbid as Poe's,
I can tell what is meant by "Shebeens,"
I have breasted the river that flows
Through the land of the wild Gadarenes;
I can gossip with Burton on skenes,
I can imitate Irving (the Mime),
And my sketches are quainter than Keene's,
But—I am not in "Men of the Time!"

ENVOY.

So the tower of mine eminence leans
Like the Pisan, and mud is its lime;
I'm acquainted with Dukes and with Deans,
But—I am not in "Men of the Time!"





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