And still, to catch the Clowns the more,
With samples of your shows in Wax,
Set some old Harry near the door
To answer queries with his axe.—
Put up some general begging-trunk—
Since the last broke by some mishap,
You’ve all a bit of General Monk,
From the respect you bore his Cap!
ON AN UNFAVOURABLE REVIEW.
“I’ll give him dash for dash.”
ERDAN, farewell! farewell to all
Who ever praised me, great or small
Your poet’s course is run!
A weekly—no, an every-day
Reviewer takes my fame away,
And I am all undone!
I cannot live an author long!
When I did write, O I did wrong
To aim at being great;
A Diamond Poet in a pin
May twinkle on in peace, and win
No diamond critic’s hate!
No small inditer of reviews
Will analyse his tiny muse,
Or lay his sonnets waste;
Who strives to prove that Richardson,
That calls himself a diamond one,
Is but a bard of paste?
The smallest bird that wings the sky
May tempt some sparrow shot, and die;
But midges still go free!
The peace that shuns my board and bed
May settle on a lowlier head,
And dwell, “St. John, with thee!”
I aimed at higher growth; and now
My leaves are withered on the bough,
I’m choked by bitter shrubs!
O Mr. F. C. W.!
What can I christen thy review
But one of “Wormwood Scrubs?”