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1865–1914

To a Critic

Madison Julius Cawein

Song hath a catalogue of lovely things Thy kind hath oft defiled,— whose spite misleads The world too often!— where the poet reads, As in a fable, of old envyings,

Crows, such as thou, which hush the bird that sings, Or kill it with their cawings; thorns and weeds, Such as thyself,‘ midst which the wind sows seeds Of flow'rs, these crush before one blossom swings.

But here and there the wisdom of a School Unknown to these hath often written down “Fame” in white ink the future hath turned brown; When every beauty, heaped with ridicule,

In their ignoble prose, proved their renown, Making each famous — as an ass or fool.

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To a Critic · Madison Julius Cawein · Poetry Cove