Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PLUTE'S LIBRARY, by WALT MASON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PLUTE'S LIBRARY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, stately books, in handsome cases, all
Last Line: Come and read them.
Subject(s): Books; Dramatists; Libraries & Librarians; Poetry & Poets; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Writing & Writers; Reading


OH, stately books, in handsome cases, all standing in their proper places,
selected, with an artist's feeling, to match the furniture and ceiling! Pope's,

Milton's, Scott's and Shakespeare's grinding, done up in costly leather binding,

and all so dismal and forbidding, that you would cry, "Aw, quit your kidding,"
if some one said, "Sit down and read 'em, to browse around you have full
freedom." They stand in rows, all unmolested, unread, un-fingered, undigested,
save when a housemaid comes to clean them, and from the dust and cobwebs wean
them. The plute exhibits them to callers, and says, "They cost ten thousand
dollars; I hired a man who knows good writers—that Shakespeare dub and
kindred blighters—and said to him, 'Now, off you caper, and buy me books to

match this paper; the libra'y's here, so go and trim it with Standard Works, and

crowd the limit.'" In my cheap shack the books are scattered around the floor,
all stained and battered; they have no deckleedged ambitions—they're mostly

fifty cent editions; but every hour and day I need them, and all the neighbors
come and read them.





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