SONNET TO A YOUNG ASS.
(On hearing it correctly imitate the hoot of a motor-horn.)
"Poor little foal of a despised race"— Thus in an earlier day a poet broke Into blank verse about thee, and awoke Compassion for thy patient, pleading face. But time thy ancient burden of disgrace Has ta'en away long since, and, though in joke Sometimes we may address thee as "the moke," No more we seek thy service to debase. For thou art changed, O much-enduring ass! No longer scorned but honoured in our day, When an entire and influential class— Our politicians—emulate thy bray; Whilst thou, in bland reciprocal salute, Hast tuned thy note to mock the motor's hoot.
"The balloon immediately began to drift over the enemy's lines. Although he threw his rifle, field glasses, and everything movable overboard, the balloon went still higher."
Continental Daily Mail.
Well, what did he expect?
"Apprentice.—Smart Lad to learn up-to-date business; must be mechanically bent."
Liverpool Echo.
The simple plan of putting him across your knee will not suffice.
From a review of Sir Charles Waldstein's Aristodemocracy in an evening paper:—
"That, however, is only a side-issue in a volume which treats the provident questions of politics with perfect humility and with much persecution. It is a book which, as we began by saying, deserves a much better title."
Some people might even say that it deserved a better reviewer.