Still anxious to secure your partial favour, A Prologue, Epilogue, or some such matter, 'Twould vamp my bill, said I, if nothing better; So sought a poet, roosted near the skies, Told him I came to feast my curious eyes; Said, nothing like his works was ever printed; And last, my prologue -- business slily hinted. "Ma'am, let me tell you," quoth my man of rhymes, "I know your bent -- these are no laughing times: Can you -- but, Miss, I own I have my fears -- Dissolve in pause, and sentimental tears; With laden sighs, and solemn-rounded sentence, Rouse from his sluggish slumbers, fell Repentance; Paint Vengeance as he takes his horrid stand, Waving on high the desolating brand, Calling the storms to bear him o'er a guilty land?" I could no more -- askance the creature eyeing, "D'ye think," said I, "this face was made for crying? I'll laugh, that's poz-nay more, the world shall know it; And so, your servant! gloomy Master Poet!" Firm as my creed, Sirs, 'tis my fix'd belief, That Misery's another word for Grief: I also think -- so may I be a bride! That so much laughter, so much life enjoy'd. Thou man of crazy care and ceaseless sigh, Still under bleak Misfortune's blasting eye; Doom'd to that sorest task of man alive -- To make three guineas do the work of five: Laugh in Misfortune's face -- the beldam witch! Say, you'll be merry, tho' you can't be rich. Thou other man of care, the wretch in love, Who long with jiltish airs and arts hast strove; Who, as the boughs all temptingly project, Measur'st in desperate thought -- a rope -- thy neck -- Or, where the beetling cliff o'erhangs the deep, Peerest to meditate the healing leap: Would'st thou be cur'd, thou silly, moping elf? Laugh at her follies -- laugh e'en at thyself: Learn to despise those frowns now so terrific, And love a kinder -- that's your grand specific. To sum up all, be merry, I advise; And as we're merry, may we still be wise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ASHURNATSIRPAL III by CARL SANDBURG A STRANGE MEETING by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES LEISURE by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES ON THE BIRTH OF HIS SON by SU SHIH MARGARET'S SONG by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE FOOTLIGHT MOTIFS: 1. MRS. VERNON CASTLE by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS |