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THE BALLADE OF THE INCOMPETENT BALLADE-MONGER.
I am not ambitious at all : I am not a poet, I know (Though I do love to see a mere scrawl To order and symmetry grow). My muse is uncertain and slow, I am not expert with my tools, I lack the poetic argot: But I hope I have kept to the rules.
When your brain is undoubtedly small,
- 'Tis hard, sir, to write in a row,
Some five or six rhymes to Nepaul,
- And more than a dozen to Joe :
- The metre is easier though,
Three rhymes are sufficient for 'ghouls,'
- My lines are deficient in go,
But I hope I have kept to the rules.
