Classic Poem

Years, years ago I had the same
Experience, and I wrote a word of
Dispraise, because that magic name
She'd never heard of.

And only yesterday you said,
With an expression that engages
Me much, you hadn't ever read
His glorious pages.

" Calverley? Who was he? " you smiled.
(And Lalage could not excel you
At smiling). Lithe and listen, child,
And let me tell you.

In 1884 he died;
Great was his gift, small his emolum-
Ent; all his verses are inside
This little volume.

Take with the height of my regard
These merry poems, bright and brittle;
The rare example of a bard
Who wrote too little.

Too few the rhymes, the tome too thin,
(Life for a poet now is quicker).
Had he known you, this book had been
A little thicker.