To the Anonymous Editor of Coleridge's Letters and Conversations
A gibbering ape that leads an elephant;
A dwarf deformed, the presence heralding
Of potent wizard, or the Elfin King;
Caliban, deigning sage advice to grant
To mighty Prosper in some hour of want;
Sweet bully Bottom, while the fairies sing,
Braying applause to their rich carolling,
But feebly typify thy flippant cant,
Stupid defamer, who for many a year
With earth's profoundest teacher wast at school
And, notwithstanding, does at last appear
A brainless, heartless, faithless, hopeless fool.
Come, take thy cap and bells, and throne thee here,
Conspicuous on the dunce's loftiest stool.
A gibbering ape that leads an elephant;
A dwarf deformed, the presence heralding
Of potent wizard, or the Elfin King;
Caliban, deigning sage advice to grant
To mighty Prosper in some hour of want;
Sweet bully Bottom, while the fairies sing,
Braying applause to their rich carolling,
But feebly typify thy flippant cant,
Stupid defamer, who for many a year
With earth's profoundest teacher wast at school
And, notwithstanding, does at last appear
A brainless, heartless, faithless, hopeless fool.
Come, take thy cap and bells, and throne thee here,
Conspicuous on the dunce's loftiest stool.