I have composed heroics and didactics,
Completed thrilling dramas by the score,
I have adopted mercenary tactics,
And started lurid serials galore;
But seldom could I pen them as I planned them;
The plays developed strangely, scene by scene,
Till I was forced, at length, to brand them
As feeble skits on what they might have been!
V.
I would not be a virulent detractor
Of all the editors who say me nay,
Of each successful manager and actor
Who has declined (with thanks) my strongest play;
They may be men of taste and erudition,
But, if they understand (and do they not?)
The kind of thing in public requisition,
The public must require the baldest rot?
IV.
I have composed heroics and didactics,
Completed thrilling dramas by the score,
I have adopted mercenary tactics,
And started lurid serials galore;
But seldom could I pen them as I planned them;
The plays developed strangely, scene by scene,
Till I was forced, at length, to brand them
As feeble skits on what they might have been!