Talk:Lapsus Calami (Apr 1891)/To A. T. M.
| Information about this edition | |
|---|---|
| Edition: | Lapsus Calami, April 1891 (first edition) |
| Source: | Lapsus Calami at Internet Archive |
| Contributor(s): | S0208 |
| Level of progress: | Proofread and corrected 
|
| Notes: | See below |
Notes[edit]
The original appearance in The Reflector is at Google Books.
The reprint in the fourth edition of Lapsus Calami is at Google Books.
The reprint in the posthumous edition (Lapsus Calami and Other Verses) is at Google Books.
The text is identical in the first, fourth, and posthumous editions.
The original text in The Reflector differed slightly:
Good Mr. K., in sturdy self-reliance,
Thoughtful and placid as a brooding dove,
Stands firmly sucking, in the cause of science,
Just such a peppermint as schoolboys love.
Suck, placid K.! The world will be thy debtor;
Though thy mouth water, and thy heart grow faint,
Suck, and the less thou likest it the better;
Suck for our sake and utter no complaint.
See'st thou yon Being, passionate and gentle,
Man's latest teacher, wisdom's pioneer,
Calmly, majestically monumental?
X., the august Telepathist, is here.
Waves of perception, subtle emanations,
Thrill through the ether, circulate amain;
Delicate, soft, impalpable sensations
Born of thy palate, quiver in his brain.
Lo! with a voice unspeakably dramatic,
Lo! with a gesture singularly fine,
He makes at last a lucid and emphatic
Statement of what is in that mouth of thine.
He could detect that peppermint's existence,
He read its nature in the book of doom,
Standing at some considerable distance,
Standing, in fact, in quite another room.
Was there a faint impenetrable essence
Wafted towards him from the sucking K.?
Did some thin ghost inform him of its presence?
Or did it happen in some other way?
These are the questions nobody can answer,
These are the problems nobody can solve;
Only we know that Man is an Advancer;
Only we know the centuries revolve.