Ballade Of His Books

Andrew Lang 1844 (Selkirk, Scottish Borders) – 1912 (Banchory)



Here stand my books, line upon line
They reach the roof, and row by row,
They speak of faded tastes of mine,
And things I did, but do not, know:
Old school books, useless long ago,
Old Logics, where the spirit, railed in,
Could scarcely answer 'yes' or 'no' -
The many things I've tried and failed in!

Here's Villon, in morocco fine,
(The Poet starved, in mud and snow,)
Glatigny does not crave to dine,
And Rene's tears forget to flow.
And here's a work by Mrs. Crowe,
With hosts of ghosts and bogies jailed in;
Ah, all my ghosts have gone below -
The many things I've tried and failed in!

He's touched, this mouldy Greek divine,
The Princess D'Este's hand of snow;
And here the arms of D'Hoym shine,
And there's a tear-bestained Rousseau:
Here's Carlyle shrieking 'woe on woe'
(The first edition, this, he wailed in);
I once believed in him--but oh,
The many things I've tried and failed in!

ENVOY.

Prince, tastes may differ; mine and thine
Quite other balances are scaled in;
May you succeed, though I repine -
'The many things I've tried and failed in!'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
60

Quick analysis:

Scheme ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC acaC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,037
Words 197
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 4

Andrew Lang

Andrew Richard Lang FRS CBE was a British scientist and crystallographer. more…

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