The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) 24By Clinton Scollard
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Literature · Humor
The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) 24
By Clinton Scollard
AnonymousEnglish
To-day, when I had dined my fill
Upon a Caxton,--you know Will,--
I crawled forth o'er the colophon
To bask awhile within the sun;
And having coiled my sated length,
I felt anon my whilom strength
Slip from me gradually, till deep
I dropped away in dreamful sleep,
Wherein I walked an endless maze,
And dined on Caxtons all my days.
Then I woke suddenly. Alas!
What in my sleep had come to pass?
That priceless first edition row,--
Squat quarto and tall folio,--
Had, in my slumber, vanished quite;
Instead, on my astonished sight
The newest novels burst,--a gay
And most unpalatable array!
I, that have battened on the best,
Why should I thus be dispossessed
And with starvation, or the worst
Of diets, cruelly be curst?
