Since you've begun, 0, teazingest of men, To dun me every quarter of an hour, 'Tis clear that in nine cases out of ten You act from habit - not Volition's power. Your words may rattle out of you, but when They do I hear them as one would a shower Of pop-gun pellets levelled at some tower, Whereof the guns know nothing there and then. I lately read in some old Magazine Or some Automaton of German breed That used to speak by means of tubes and springs; 'Tis thus You speak to Me, you mere machine! So I'll not mind you further- and indeed At best your eloquence is no great things. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SOLDIER GOING TO THE FIELD by WILLIAM DAVENANT RELIGION by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE LAST LEAF by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN: THE FIRST DAY: PAUL REVERE'S RIDE [APRIL 1775] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW ON BOARD THE '76; WRITTEN FOR BRYANT'S SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |