Classic Poem

At fifty cents per agate line
Kind editors will buy your verse;
They'll make you swear that you resign
All claims, for better or for worse.
The book, dramatic, photoplay,
And interplanetary rights
They seize; but do not feel dismay--
Their barks are fiercer than their bites!

I thank, for leave to print these rhymes,
And for unfailing courtesy,
Everybody's, New York Times,
The Outlook and the Century;
The Boston Transcript, L. H. J.,
The Tribune, Mail, and Evening Post,
The Book News Monthly, chastely gay--
But Life and Collier's I thank most.

The Independent and McClure's
And Argosy have borne my flights:
Dear scribblers, how this reassures--
Their barks are fiercer than their bites!