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TREES AND OTHER POEMS DELICATESSEN

HY is that wanton gossip Fame

So dumb about this man's affairs?

Why do we titter at his name

Who come to buy his curious wares?

Here is a shop of wonderment.

From every land has come a prize;

Rich spices from the Orient,

And fruit that knew Italian skies,

And figs that ripened by the sea

In Smyrna, nuts from hot Brazil,

Strange pungent meats from Germany,

And currants from a Grecian hill.

He is the lord of goodly things

That make the poor man's table gay,

Yet of his worth no minstrel sings

And on his tomb there is no bay.

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