62
JEUX D'ESPRIT AND MINOR POEMS, 1798-1824.
5.
Away with old Homer the blind—
I'll show you a poet that's blinder:
You may see him whene'er you've a mind
In Gaily i.o. the Grinder.
Gaily i.o. i.o., etc.
6.
Blindfold he runs groping for fame,
And hardly knows where he will find her:
She don't seem to take to the name
Of Gaily i.o. the Grinder.
Gaily i.o. i.o., etc.
7.
Yet the Critics have been very kind,
And Mamma and his friends have been kinder;
But the greatest of Glory's behind
For Gaily i.o. the Grinder.
Gaily i.o. i.o.
April 11, 1818.
[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed.]
[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed.]
EPIGRAM.
FROM THE FRENCH OF RULHIÈRES.[1]
If for silver, or for gold,
You could melt ten thousand pimples
- ↑ ["Would you like an epigram—a translation? It was written on some Frenchwoman, by Rulhières, I believe."—Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819, Letters, 1900, iv. 346. Claude Carloman de Rulhière (1718-1791), historian, poet, and epigrammatist, was the author of Anecdotes sur la révolution de Russie en l'année 1762, Histoire de l'anarchie de Pologne (1807), etc. His
