Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/194

 Couplet and Quatrains.

COUPLET AND QUATRAINS. By Wendell P. Stafford. Questioner.— Give me a rule how each day should be passed. Oracle.— As though a trumpet said, " It is thy last."

WHAT THE DAY SAID AT EVENING. Go and delve a thousand days, Let each day a thousand be, Thou shalt never win the praise I have vainly proffered thee. a bird's-eye view of verse. Well, well, Mr. Poet, your plaint we have heard, But, we're sorry to add, you are not the first bird Who has had to snatch up all his chances to sing Twixt the scratch of a claw and the flap of a wing. FROM DEEP TO DEEP. All song is but an echo From memory's marvellous horn, And prelude to a sweeter lay Whose singer is unborn. THE MUSE IRONICAL. She would foil Phidias, let Apelles find Her frown upon his canvas; she would tease Unto despair tongue-tied Demosthenes. She loved one poet only. He was blind. THE QUATRAIN. To snare the light foot of the Muse, It only takes four fragile threads. The trap's a certain one to use — If you'll but set it where she treads.

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