Последний отзыв
Очень интересная!
По всем вопросам обращайтесь на: info@litportal.ru
(©) 2003-2024.
✖
A Satire Anthology
Автор
Год написания книги
2017
Настройки чтения
Размер шрифта
Высота строк
Поля
Our bard had been a favoured man;
Fortune, more chary with the sickle,
Had ranked him next to Garth or Tickell;
He might have even dared to hope
A line’s malignity from Pope!
But now, when folks are hard to please,
And poets are as thick as – peas,
The Fates are not so prone to flatter,
Unless, indeed, a friend… No matter.
The book, then, had a minor credit.
The critics took, and doubtless read it.
Said A.: “These little songs display
No lyric gift, but still a ray,
A promise. They will do no harm.”
’Twas kindly, if not very warm.
Said B.: “The author may, in time,
Acquire the rudiments of rhyme;
His efforts now are scarcely verse.”
This, certainly, could not be worse.
Sorely discomfited, our bard
Worked for another ten years – hard.
Meanwhile the world, unmoved, went on;
New stars shot up, shone out, were gone;
Before his second volume came,
His critics had forgot his name:
And who, forsooth, is bound to know
Each laureate in embryo!
They tried and tested him, no less,
The pure assayers of the Press.
Said A.: “The author may, in time..”
Or much what B. had said of rhyme.
Then B.: “These little songs display..”
And so forth, in the sense of A.
Over the bard I throw a veil.
There is no moral to this tale.
Austin Dobson.
THE LOVE-LETTER
“J’ai vu les mœurs de mon temps, et j’ai publié cette lettre.” —La Nouvelle Héloise
IF this should fail, why, then I scarcely know
What could succeed. Here’s brilliancy (and banter),
Byron ad lib., a chapter of Rousseau;
If this should fail, then tempora mutantur;
Style’s out of date, and love, as a profession,
Acquires no aid from beauty of expression.
“The men who think as I, I fear, are few”
(Cynics would say ’twere well if they were fewer);
“I am not what I seem” – (indeed, ’tis true;
Though, as a sentiment, it might be newer);
“Mine is a soul whose deeper feelings lie
More deep than words” – (as these exemplify).
“I will not say when first your beauty’s sun
Illumed my life” – (it needs imagination);
“For me to see you and to love were one” —
(This will account for some precipitation);
“Let it suffice that worship more devoted
Ne’er throbbed,” et cetera. The rest is quoted.
“If Love can look with all-prophetic eye” —
(Ah, if he could, how many would be single!)
“If truly spirit unto spirit cry” —
(The ears of some most terribly must tingle!)
“Then I have dreamed you will not turn your face.”
This next, I think, is more than commonplace.
“Why should we speak, if Love, interpreting,
Forestall the speech with favour found before?
Why should we plead? it were an idle thing,
If Love himself be Love’s ambassador!”
Blot, as I live! Shall we erase it? No;
’Twill show we write currente calamo.
“My fate, my fortune, I commit to you” —
(In point of fact, the latter’s not extensive);
“Without you I am poor indeed” (strike through —
’Tis true, but crude; ’twould make her apprehensive);
“My life is yours – I lay it at your feet”
(Having no choice but Hymen or the Fleet).
“Give me the right to stand within the shrine
Where never yet my faltering feet intruded;
Give me the right to call you wholly mine” —
(That is, consols and three-per-cents. included);
“To guard your rest from every care that cankers —
To keep your life” – (and balance at your banker’s).
“Compel me not to long for your reply;
Suspense makes havoc with the mind” – (and muscles);
“Winged Hope takes flight” (which means that I must fly,
Default of funds, to Paris or to Brussels);
“I cannot wait! My own, my queen – Priscilla!
Write by return.” And now for a manilla!
Fortune, more chary with the sickle,
Had ranked him next to Garth or Tickell;
He might have even dared to hope
A line’s malignity from Pope!
But now, when folks are hard to please,
And poets are as thick as – peas,
The Fates are not so prone to flatter,
Unless, indeed, a friend… No matter.
The book, then, had a minor credit.
The critics took, and doubtless read it.
Said A.: “These little songs display
No lyric gift, but still a ray,
A promise. They will do no harm.”
’Twas kindly, if not very warm.
Said B.: “The author may, in time,
Acquire the rudiments of rhyme;
His efforts now are scarcely verse.”
This, certainly, could not be worse.
Sorely discomfited, our bard
Worked for another ten years – hard.
Meanwhile the world, unmoved, went on;
New stars shot up, shone out, were gone;
Before his second volume came,
His critics had forgot his name:
And who, forsooth, is bound to know
Each laureate in embryo!
They tried and tested him, no less,
The pure assayers of the Press.
Said A.: “The author may, in time..”
Or much what B. had said of rhyme.
Then B.: “These little songs display..”
And so forth, in the sense of A.
Over the bard I throw a veil.
There is no moral to this tale.
Austin Dobson.
THE LOVE-LETTER
“J’ai vu les mœurs de mon temps, et j’ai publié cette lettre.” —La Nouvelle Héloise
IF this should fail, why, then I scarcely know
What could succeed. Here’s brilliancy (and banter),
Byron ad lib., a chapter of Rousseau;
If this should fail, then tempora mutantur;
Style’s out of date, and love, as a profession,
Acquires no aid from beauty of expression.
“The men who think as I, I fear, are few”
(Cynics would say ’twere well if they were fewer);
“I am not what I seem” – (indeed, ’tis true;
Though, as a sentiment, it might be newer);
“Mine is a soul whose deeper feelings lie
More deep than words” – (as these exemplify).
“I will not say when first your beauty’s sun
Illumed my life” – (it needs imagination);
“For me to see you and to love were one” —
(This will account for some precipitation);
“Let it suffice that worship more devoted
Ne’er throbbed,” et cetera. The rest is quoted.
“If Love can look with all-prophetic eye” —
(Ah, if he could, how many would be single!)
“If truly spirit unto spirit cry” —
(The ears of some most terribly must tingle!)
“Then I have dreamed you will not turn your face.”
This next, I think, is more than commonplace.
“Why should we speak, if Love, interpreting,
Forestall the speech with favour found before?
Why should we plead? it were an idle thing,
If Love himself be Love’s ambassador!”
Blot, as I live! Shall we erase it? No;
’Twill show we write currente calamo.
“My fate, my fortune, I commit to you” —
(In point of fact, the latter’s not extensive);
“Without you I am poor indeed” (strike through —
’Tis true, but crude; ’twould make her apprehensive);
“My life is yours – I lay it at your feet”
(Having no choice but Hymen or the Fleet).
“Give me the right to stand within the shrine
Where never yet my faltering feet intruded;
Give me the right to call you wholly mine” —
(That is, consols and three-per-cents. included);
“To guard your rest from every care that cankers —
To keep your life” – (and balance at your banker’s).
“Compel me not to long for your reply;
Suspense makes havoc with the mind” – (and muscles);
“Winged Hope takes flight” (which means that I must fly,
Default of funds, to Paris or to Brussels);
“I cannot wait! My own, my queen – Priscilla!
Write by return.” And now for a manilla!
Другие электронные книги автора Carolyn Wells
Последний отзыв
Очень интересная!