Now,--like you Croly's verse indeed--
In heaven--where one cannot read
The "Warren" on a wall?
What think you here of that man's fame?
Tho' Jerdan magnified his name,
To me 'tis very small!
XXII.
And, truly, is there such a spell
In those three letters, L. E. L.,
To witch a world with song?
On clouds the Byron did not sit,
Yet dared on Shakespeare's head to spit,
And say the world was wrong!
XXIII.
And shall not we? Let's think aloud!
Thus being couch'd upon a cloud,
Graham, we'll have our eyes!
We felt the great when we were less,
But we'll retort on littleness
Now we are in the skies.
XXIV.
O Graham, Graham, how I blame
The bastard blush,--the petty shame,
That used to fret me quite,--
The little sores I cover'd then,
No sores on earth, nor sorrows when
The world is out of sight!
XXV.
_My_ name is Tims. I am the man
That North's unseen diminish'd clan
So scurvily abused!
I am the very P. A. Z.
The London's Lion's small pin's head
So often hath refused!
XXVI.
Campbell--(you cannot see him here)--
Hath scorn'd my _lays_:--do his appear
Such great eggs from the sky?
And Longman, and his lengthy Co.
Long, only, in a little Row,
Have thrust my poems by!
XXVII.
What else?--I'm poor, and much beset
With petty duns--that is--in debt
Some grains of golden dust!
But only worth, above, is worth.
What's all the credit of the earth?
An inch of cloth on trust!
XXVIII.
What's Rothschild here, that wealthy man!
Nay, worlds of wealth?--Oh, if you can
Spy out,--the _Golden Ball!_
Sure as we rose, all money sank:
What's gold or silver now?--the Bank
Is gone--the 'Change and all!
XXIX.
What's all the ground-rent of the globe?--
Oh, Graham, it would worry Job
To hear its landlords prate!
But after this survey, I think
I'll ne'er be bullied more, nor shrink
From men of large estate!
XXX.
And less, still less, will I submit
To poor mean acres' worth of wit--
I that have Heaven's span--
I that like Shakespeare's self may dream
Beyond the very clouds, and seem
An Universal Man!
XXXI.
Oh, Graham, mark those gorgeous crowds!
Like birds of paradise the clouds
Are winging on the wind!
But what is grander than their range?
More lovely than their sunset change?--
The free creative mind!
XXXII.
Well! the Adults' School's in the air!
The greatest men are lesson'd there
As well as the lessee!
Oh could earth's Ellistons thus small
Behold the greatest stage of all,
How humbled they would be!
XXXIII.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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