“In Vain To-Day.”
In vain to-day I scrape and blot:
The nimble words, the phrases neat,
Decline to mingle and to meet;
My skill is all forgone, forgot.
He will not canter, walk, or trot,
My Pegasus; I spur, I beat
In vain to-day.
And yet ’twere sure the saddest lot
That I should fail to leave complete
One poor... the rhyme suggests “conceit!”
Alas! ’tis all too clear I’m not
In vein to-day.
Austin Dobson.