TO A WEALTHY MAN WHO PROMISED A SECOND SUBSCRIPTION TO THE DUBLIN
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ou gave but will not give againUntil enough of Paudeen's penceBy Biddy's halfpennies have lainTo be 'some sort of evidence,'Before you'll put your guineas down,That things it were a pride to giveAre what the blind and ignorant townImagines best to make it thrive.What cared Duke Ercole, that bidHis mummers to the market place,What th' onion-sellers thought or didSo that his Plautus set the paceFor the Italian comedies?And Guidobaldo, when he madeThat grammar school of courtesiesWhere wit and beauty learned their tradeUpon Urbino's windy hill,Had sent no runners to and froThat he might learn the shepherds' will.And when they drove out Cosimo,Indifferent how the rancour ran,He gave the hours they had set freeTo Michelozzo's latest planFor the San Marco Library,Whence turbulent Italy should drawDelight in Art whose end is peace,In logic and in natural lawBy sucking at the dugs of Greece. Your open hand but shows our loss,For he knew better how to live.Let Paudeens play at pitch and toss,Look up in the sun's eye and giveWhat the exultant heart calls goodThat some new day may breed the bestBecause you gave, not what they wouldBut the right twigs for an eagle's nest! _December 1912._
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