Читать книгу More Misrepresentative Men - Graham Harry - Страница 2

VORACIOUS Author, gorged with gold,

Your grasping greed shall not avail!

In vain you venture to unfold

Your false prehensile tale!

I view in scorn (unmixed with awe)

The width of your capacious maw.

On me the onus has to fall

Of your malevolent effusions;

'Tis I who bear the brunt of all

Your libellous allusions;

To bolster up your turgid verse,

I jeopardise my very purse!

You do not hesitate to fleece

The Publisher you scorn to thank,

And when you manage to decrease

His balance at the bank,

Your face is lighted up with greed,

And you are lantern-jawed indeed!

Yet will I still heap coals of fire,

Until your coiffure is imbedded,

And you at last, perchance, shall tire

Of growing so hot-headed,

And realise that being funny

Is not a mere affair of money.

And so, in honour of your pow'rs,

A fragrant bouquet will I pick,

Of rare exotics, blossoms, flow'rs

Of speech and rhetoric;

I'll add a thistle, if I may,

And, round the whole, a wreath of bay.

The blossoms for your button-hole,

To mark your affluent condition,

Exotics to inspire your soul

To further composition.

Come, set the bays upon your brow!

Well, eat the thistle, anyhow!