I have scribbled in verse and in prose,
I have painted “arrangements in greens,”
And my name is familiar to those
Who take in the high class magazines;
I compose; I've invented machines;
I have written an “Essay on Rhyme”;
For my county I played, in my teens,
But-I am not in “Men of the Time!”
I have lived, as a chief, with the Crows;
I have “interviewed” Princes and Queens;
I have climbed the Caucasian snows;
I abstain, like the ancients, from beans,-
I've a guess what Pythagoras means,
When he says that to eat them's a crime,-
I have lectured upon the Essenes,
But-I am not in “Men of the Time!”
I've a fancy as morbid as Poe's,
I can tell what is meant by “Shebeens,”
I have breasted the river that flows
Through the land of the wild Gadarenes;
I can gossip with Burton on skenes,
I can imitate Irving (the Mime),
And my sketches are quainter than Keene's,
But-I am not in “Men of the Time!”
ENVOY
So the tower of mine eminence leans
Like the Pisan, and mud is its lime;
I'm acquainted with Dukes and with Deans,
But-I am not in “Men of the Time!”
Ballade Of Neglected Merit
Andrew Lang
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Poem topics: river, wild, tower, gossip, class, high, verse, rhyme, guess, time, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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Ballade Of Neglected Merit is a poem by Andrew Lang. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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