WHEN, lady, you applaud my rhymes Appearing in the public prints, (As you have done a dozen times), I wince. A bead (or two) bepearls my brow; I modestly say "Pooh!" or "Tush!" I'd blush, I think, if I knew how To blush. Once, when your praise was too absurd, I spoke of Calverley. With vim And scorn you said: "I never heard Of him." Tottered my reason, shook my nerve, I stifled an uprising sob. "Has she," I wondered, "heard of Irv- In Cobb?" Take, lady, then, this blithesome book— My friend, philosopher, and guide— And don't, I pray, forget to look Inside. How fair the rhymes! The verse how fresh! Like "one clear harp in divers tones." Read "Flight," "Forever,"—oh, read "Prec- Ious Stones"! Here, all this treasured tome throughout, Shall you find undiluted joy. You, in your classic phrase, will shout "@3Oh, boy!@1" Yet pricks the thorn upon the rose; And lurks the wormwood in the cup: Calverley. ... Lady, how he shows Me up! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVELY CHANCE by SARA TEASDALE THE WIND AT THE DOOR by WILLIAM BARNES THE RHODORA: ON BEING ASKED, WHENCE IS THE FLOWER? by RALPH WALDO EMERSON A THUNDERSTORM IN TOWN by THOMAS HARDY A SHORT SONG OF CONGRATULATION by SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784) ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 47 by PHILIP SIDNEY FAREWELL TO THE FARM by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |