Wit and Humor of America, The Vol 07

<h2>THE CRITIC</h2> <h3>BY WILLIAM J. LAMPTON</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Behold<br/></span> <span class="i0">The Critic, bold and cold,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who sits in judgment on<br/></span> <span class="i0">The twilight and the dawn<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of literature,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And, eminently sure,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Informs his age<br/></span> <span class="i0">What printed page<br/></span> <span class="i0">Is destined to be great.<br/></span> <span class="i0">His word is Fate,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And what he writes<br/></span> <span class="i0">Is greater far<br/></span> <span class="i0">Than all the books<br/></span> <span class="i0">He writes of are.<br/></span> <span class="i0">His pen<br/></span> <span class="i0">Is dipped in boom<br/></span> <span class="i0">Or doom;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And when<br/></span> <span class="i0">He says one book is rot,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And that another's not,<br/></span> <span class="i0">That ends it. He<br/></span> <span class="i0">Is pure infallibility,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And any book he judges must<br/></span> <span class="i0">Be blessed or cussed<br/></span> <span class="i0">By all mankind,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Except the blind</span><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1337" id="Page_1337"></SPAN></span><br/> <span class="i0">Who will not see<br/></span> <span class="i0">The master's modest mastery.<br/></span> <span class="i0">His fiat stands<br/></span> <span class="i0">Against the uplifted hands<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of thousands who protest<br/></span> <span class="i0">And buy the books<br/></span> <span class="i0">That they like best;<br/></span> <span class="i0">But what of that?<br/></span> <span class="i0">He knows where he is at,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And they don't. And why<br/></span> <span class="i0">Shouldn't he be high<br/></span> <span class="i0">Above them as the clouds<br/></span> <span class="i0">Are high above the brooks,<br/></span> <span class="i0">For God, He made the Critic,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And man, he makes the books.<br/></span> <span class="i0">See?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Gee whiz,<br/></span> <span class="i0">What a puissant potentate the Critic is.<br/></span> <span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1338" id="Page_1338"></SPAN></span></div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />