Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A FASHIONABLE POET, by FRANK PUTNAM


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A FASHIONABLE POET, by                    
First Line: Is the murmur of approval, high and higher
Last Line: Who might have had dominion over men!
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


Is the murmur of approval, high and higher,
That the winds of favor waft you very sweet?

Does your spirit know its old heroic fire
That could scoff alike at failure or defeat?

Is the olden inspiration in your lyre
Now that Fashion scatters roses for your feet?

Are you happy, say, or sorry, since the morning
When, by Want and wily Patronage beset,

You began, with silken sophistries adorning
Greed's aggressions, the repayment of your debt?

Was the offer fit for seizing or for scorning?
Can they teach a living conscience to forget?

You are silent — is their scorn allied to pity?
Do they give you leave of labor now and then

To invent a gilded song or Bacchic ditty
In the practice of a prostituted pen?

Thou eunuch of the prosperous and pretty
Who might have had dominion over men!





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