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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SAM AND JIM, by WALT MASON Poet's Biography
First Line: When old sam johnson sat in state, that
Last Line: Pompous prodigies lie down, and, dying, kill off their renown.
Subject(s): Authors And Authorship; Biography; Old Age; Writing & Writers; Biographers
First Line: When old sam johnson sat in state, that
Last Line: Pompous prodigies lie down, and, dying, kill off their renown.
Subject(s): Authors And Authorship; Biography; Old Age; Writing & Writers; Biographers
WHEN old Sam Johnson sat in state, that man of learning, wise and great, with
Burke and Goldsmith and the rest, Jim Boswell was the butt and jest. They all
must have their flings at Jim, and none had much respect for him. Methinks, had
some prophetic dub appeared before them at their club, and said, "This man who
is your goat, at whom you laugh with scornful note, will by the multitudes be
read, when all your junk is stale and dead," old Sam would then have raised a
roar: "Begone, false prophet—there's the door!" And yet great Johnson,
mighty sage, the shining marvel of his age, lives only in the book that Jim so
reverently wrote of him. Jim's immortality is sure; down to the Judgment 'twill
endure, while those who jeered his little games, have left but half-forgotten
names. And it may be, men now on earth, whose work we think has little worth,
will leave a deathless fame behind when they have quit their humble grind, while
pompous prodigies lie down, and, dying, kill off their renown.
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