Now is the rhymer's honest trade <br />A thing for scornful laughter made. <br /> <br />The merchant's sneer, the clerk's disdain, <br />These are the burden of our pain. <br /> <br />Because of you did this befall, <br />You brought this shame upon us all. <br /> <br />You little poets mincing there <br />With women's hearts and women's hair! <br /> <br />How sick Dan Chaucer's ghost must be <br />To hear you lisp of "Poesie"! <br /> <br />A heavy-handed blow, I think, <br />Would make your veins drip scented ink. <br /> <br />You strut and smirk your little while <br />So mildly, delicately vile! <br /> <br />Your tiny voices mock God's wrath, <br />You snails that crawl along His path! <br /> <br />Why, what has God or man to do <br />With wet, amorphous things like you? <br /> <br />This thing alone you have achieved: <br />Because of you, it is believed <br /> <br />That all who earn their bread by rhyme <br />Are like yourselves, exuding slime. <br /> <br />Oh, cease to write, for very shame, <br />Ere all men spit upon our name! <br /> <br />Take up your needles, drop your pen, <br />And leave the poet's craft to men!<br /><br />Joyce Kilmer<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-certain-poets/
