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