THE WAIL OF THE WIRE.

(With apologies to the Poet.)

"It is stated that Mr. Swinburne's new poem was cabled to New York."

Had I wist, wailed the wire in sea's hollow,

That thousands of lines I should list,

Pumped forth by a son of Apollo,

I would not have lain here, not I,

'Twixt Briton and Yankee a tie:

No messages through me should fly,