I have always so well in the Ring gone to work,
That my backers proclaimed me “inwincible Burke;”
And then for a lad of my courage and game
To be floored by a novice—by Jove! ’tis a shame.
I hang down my head, quite dismay’d and perplex’d.
And when folks ax me questions, of course, I am wex’d,
For, instead of consoling me under my loss,
They insiniwate plainly the thing was a cross.
They swear, for a man who has stood so much fight,
To be whopp’d in ten rounds was impossible quite: