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BALLADE OF SONGS UNSUNG.
I meant to write some other verse
Some better, and some vastly worse.
I meant to write, and never did,
And now the coining Schools forbid.
I'll mention what I hoped to sing
To guard against all trespassing.
One on the Franco-Prussian War
(It never had been done before)
But now, I render thanks to Allah,
It has been done by P. G - - d - ll - .
I had a very real wish
To write a trifling thing on fish
It was The Goldfish at the Tate—
That one I fear will have to wait.
A Ballad of the Law Prelim.
(That one was rather like a hymn.)
Some musings that I had to burn
For being too like Laurence Sterne,
These would have done exceeding well
As a racy villanelle.
