Borrowed Robes
Borrowed Robes
BY JOHN KENDRICK BANGS
THERE'S Binks, he is wearing the "mantle of Scott,"—
His publishers so advertise.
I really can't say if it's truthful or not,
I haven't had time to get wise.
I fancy, however, it isn't quite so,
Tho' Binksy is walking on stilts.
For Scott never sported a mantle, altho'
He frequently went out in kilts.
And Tompkins—a poet of passion—they say
Is wearing the "shoes of John Keats."
I rather believe it is true from the play
Of Tompkins's rhythmical feats.
I've noticed they move with a horrible limp
As though he'd a cork-legged muse.
His gait has a very unmetrical crimp
From wearing another man's shoes.
There's others who're wearing the left-over duds
Of Byron and Shelley and Lamb.
I dare say there's some one who's wearing the studs
Of old Mr. Omar Khayyam.
The collar of Dickens is one fellow's lot;
Another's the rubbers of Poe:
And G. Harding Wiggles is said to have got
The pot-hat of Daniel Defoe.
For me I care not for illustrious gowns.
I want no one's mantle in mine.
A second-hand garment will fill me with frowns—
Such offers I'll ever decline;
And if it so happens I take to the pen,
Like certain mechanics I've known,
I hope at the last, when I come to "say when,"
They'll find that my clothes were my own.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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