The Muse of Knickerbocker

We guiterman a volume when,
Though but one pen can rightly do it,
We view it reasonably, then
With ripe and rippling rhymes review it.

(How delicate should be the eye,
How deft and definite the hand
Of the audacious poet by
Whom Guiterman is guitermanned!)

This Arthur with the nib of gold,
The quaintest of the critic carpers
Who sang New York, has sung the Old
Manhattan now in ballads (Harpers).

The color of his music moves
From Dobson’s to our Yankee Doodle’s;
Assay his mixture, and it proves,
However, Guiterman in oodles.

He sings the founders: “Kips, Van Dorns,
Van Dams, Van Wycks, Van Dycks, Van Pelts,
Van Tienhovens, Schermerhorns,
And Onderdoncks and Roosevelts.”

Of Tappan Zee, of Nepperhan,
Of Hellegatt, of Spuyten Duyvil,
Of’t Maagde Paetje, Guiterman
Here rhymes in rings around each rival.

Adieu vers libre, adieu the news,
Adieu the horrid shilling-shocker;
We hail the marriage of the Muse
To Mynheer Diedrich Knickerbocker.