Author THIS text is not what it should be. There are some strange mistakes I see I must have missed. For who, right witted, Would dream of putting 'filled' for 'fitted'? Or 'light' for 'tight'? Or 'sleep' for 'steep'? -- Such things would make the angels weep. Publisher That is so. Still they do occur To the most proved artificer. You must have failed to cross your 't's': GENIUS is prone to that disease! Author True. (And sometimes, by accident, The blunder betters what was meant!) But tell me. What is my position? Correction? In a new edition? -- Those 'new editions' have a knack, Unluckily, of holding back... Publisher That is because men take more pains To feed their bodies than their brains; Or else because they really care For little save the lighter fare; And then -- though this is poor relief -- The life of modern books is brief. -- We'll paste in an 'Errata' slip... Author Which none will look at but to skip. No; the misfortune must be gulped, Until the masterpiece is ... pulped! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HITS AND RUNS by CARL SANDBURG THE HASTY PUDDING by JOEL BARLOW A PRAYER TO THE WIND by THOMAS CAREW THE OVIDIAN ELEGIAC METRE, DESCRIBED AND EXEMPLIFIED by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG by FRANCIS BRET HARTE |