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Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers

     Ye poets ragged and forlorn,
      Down from your garrets haste;
    Ye rhymers, dead as soon as born,
      Not yet consign'd to paste;
     I know a trick to make you thrive;
      O, 'tis a quaint device:
    Your still-born poems shall revive,
      And scorn to wrap up spice.
     Get all your verses printed fair,
     Then let them well be dried;
   And Curll must have a special care
     To leave the margin wide.

    Lend these to paper-sparing Pope;
     And when he sets to write,
   No letter with an envelope
     Could give him more delight.

    When Pope has fill'd the margins round,
     Why then recall your loan;
   Sell them to Curll for fifty pound,
     And swear they are your own.

Notes

NOTES







Form:
abab

Composition Date:
1726



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Comments

  • Mnemosnye
    July 5, 2007
    Edit | Reply
    I hate plagiarism, but that's hilarious! I love satires!

    ~Mnemosnye Sagittarius~