In Other Words/Thorns, Rifts, Clouds, Flaws, Blemishes, Etc.
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Thorns, Rifts, Clouds, Flaws, Blemishes, Etc.
[“The attitude of mind I have always believed in, is to answer, when anybody says how ugly Mrs. Blank’s nose is, ‘Yes, but hasn’t she a lovely complexion?’”—Kate Douglas Wiggin.]
Would I were constructed so!
Would I failed to find the flaws!
But when people talk of Poe
With consid’able applause
I concede that he was There;
That his name is deep engraven
On the scroll; “But,” I declare,
“I can’t see much in ‘The Raven.’ ”
Would I failed to find the flaws!
But when people talk of Poe
With consid’able applause
I concede that he was There;
That his name is deep engraven
On the scroll; “But,” I declare,
“I can’t see much in ‘The Raven.’ ”
People prate of Dryden’s dope,
But his rhymes were often false;
There are some good things in Pope,
But his meter often halts.
Take the things that Wordsworth wrote,
Some—I hate to hurl the hammer—
Are not worthy of a pote;
Shelley made some slips in grammar.
But his rhymes were often false;
There are some good things in Pope,
But his meter often halts.
Take the things that Wordsworth wrote,
Some—I hate to hurl the hammer—
Are not worthy of a pote;
Shelley made some slips in grammar.
Horace Greeley wrote a fist
That a comp. could never read;
Byron—yes, if you insist,
He could write, I will concede—
But his private history
Was a riot and a panic—
Inexcusable by me,
Stern, unbending, Puritanic.
That a comp. could never read;
Byron—yes, if you insist,
He could write, I will concede—
But his private history
Was a riot and a panic—
Inexcusable by me,
Stern, unbending, Puritanic.
Would I sensed a Thornless Rose!
Would I heard a Riftless Lute!
Would, despite that lady’s nose,
I could say ‘‘But she’s a beaut.”
Would that I might ever see
But the True, the Fair, the Youthful!
Would—oh, would that I might be
Optimistic—and untruthful!
Would I heard a Riftless Lute!
Would, despite that lady’s nose,
I could say ‘‘But she’s a beaut.”
Would that I might ever see
But the True, the Fair, the Youthful!
Would—oh, would that I might be
Optimistic—and untruthful!