O tuneless chimes! O worn-out bells!
I hear—and so do you—
The tales that everybody tells
But no one listens to.
Office Mottoes
Motto heartening, inspiring,
Framed above my pretty *desk,
Never Shelley, Keats, or Byring*
Penned a phrase so picturesque!
But in me no inspiration
Rides my low and prosy brow—
All I think of is vacation
When I see that lucubration:
DO IT NOW
When I see another sentence
Framed upon a brother's wall,
Resolution and repentance
Do not flood o'er me at all
As I read that nugatory
Counsel written years ago,
Only when one comes to borry[Footnote: Entered under the Pure License of
1906.]
Do I heed that ancient story:
TELL HIM NO
Mottoes flat and mottoes silly,
Proverbs void of point or wit,
"KEEP A-PLUGGIN' WHEN IT'S HILLY!"
"LIFE'S A TIGER: CONQUER IT!"
Office mottoes make me weary
And of all the bromide bunch
There is only one I seri-
Ously like, and that's the cheery:
GONE TO LUNCH
Metaphysics
A man morose and dull and sad—
Go ask him why he feels so bad.
Behold! He answers it is drink
That put his nerves upon the blink.