Classic Poem

If I could bring the dead to-day,
I would your soul with wonder fill
By pointing out a novel way
For bibliopegistic skill.

My Walton, Trautz should take in hand,
Or else I'd give him o'er to Hering;
Matthews should make the Gospels stand
A dateless warning to the erring.

The history of the Inquisition,
With all its diabolic train
Of cruelty and superstition,
Should fitly be arrayed by Payne.

A book of dreams by Bedford clad,
A papal history by De Rome,
Should make the sense of fitness glad
In every bibliomaniac's home.

As our first mother's folly cost
Her sex so dear, and makes men grieve,
So Milton's plaint of Eden lost
Would be appropriate for Eve.

Hayday would make “One summer” be
Much more attractive to the view;
While General Wolfe's biography
Should be the work of Pasdeloup.

For lives of dwarfs like Thomas Thumb
Petit's the man by Nature made,
And when Munchausen strikes us dumb
It is by means of Gascon aid.

Thus would I the great binders blend
In harmony with work before 'em.
And so Rivière I would commend
To Turner's “Liber Fluviorum.”