Classic Poem

It is strange how one works easily at times. I wrote this so quickly that I might almost say I had reached the end before I had come to the beginning. In such a mood I wonder why everybody does not write poetry. Get a Roget's Thesaurus , a rhyming dictionary: sit before your typewriter with a strong glass of coffee at your elbow, and just click the stuff off.

FACILITY

So easy 'tis to make a rhyme,
That did the world but know it,
Your coachman might Parnassus climb,
Your butler be a poet.

Then, oh, how charming it would be
If, when in haste hysteric
You called the page, you learned that he
Was grappling with a lyric.

Or else what rapture it would yield,
When cook sent up the salad,
To find within its depths concealed
A touching little ballad.

Or if for tea and toast you yearned,
What joy to find upon it
The chambermaid had coyly laid
A palpitating sonnet.

Your baker could the fashion set;
Your butcher might respond well;
With every tart a triolet,
With every chop a rondel.

Your tailor's bill … well, I'll be blowed!
Dear chap! I never knowed him …
He's gone and written me an ode,
Instead of what I owed him.

So easy 'tis to rhyme … yet stay!
Oh, terrible misgiving!
Please do not give the game away …
I've got to make my living.