The

If I could have my way,

Would be a sort of pot-pourri

Of Poe and Thackeray;

Of Horace, Edison, and Lamb;

Of Keats and Washington,

Gérôme and blest Omar Khayyám,

And R. L. Stevenson;

Of Kipling and the Bard of Thrums,

And Bonaparte the great—

If I were these, I’d snap my thumbs

Derisively at Fate.

A COMMON FAVORITE

Charles Lamb is good, and so is Thackeray,

Charles Lamb

And so’s Jane Austen in her pretty way;

Charles Dickens, too, has pleased me quite a lot,

As also have both Stevenson and Scott.

I like Dumas and Balzac, and I think

Lord Byron quite a dab at spreading ink;

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