Page 30 - Poetry-Whimsy

Sonnet

Once a poet wrote a sonnet
All about a pretty bonnet,
And a critic sat upon it
(On the sonnet,
Not the bonnet),
Nothing loth.

And as if it were high treason
He said, “Neither rhyme nor reason
Has it. And it’s out of season!”
Which? The sonnet
Or the bonnet?
May be both.

“ ‘Tis a feeble imitation
Of a worthier creation,
An aesthetic innovation!”
Of a sonnet,
Or a bonnet?
This was hard.

Both were put together neatly,
Harmonizing very sweetly.
But the critic crushed completely,
Not the bonnet,
Or the sonnet,
But the bard!

—(Young Ladies’ Journal, 1882)

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