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Lapsus Calami (Aug 1891)/The Poet's Prayer

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A roundel. First printed in The Cambridge Review, 4 June 1891, and then included as the first of "Two Roundels" in the third and subsequent editions of Lapsus Calami.

1789872Lapsus Calami — The Poet's PrayerJames Kenneth Stephen

NOVI LAPSUS.

APRIL—JUNE, 1891.

DE LAPSIBUS PRIORIBUS.

TWO ROUNDELS.

i. The Poet's Prayer.

To buy my book—if you will be so kind—
Is all I ask of you; and not to look
What fruit lies hid beneath the azure rind:
To buy my book.

This for her hymn-book Rosalind mistook,
When worshipping with yokel, maid, and hind;
Neaera read it in a flowery nook,
And gave her loose curls to the wanton wind.
For this her grammar Sylvia once forsook,
Of you I only ask—you will not mind?—
To buy my book.