John Kendrick Bangs

“ To see myself a man immortal deemed.
My poems, lately placed upon the mart,
Had gone straight home to every reader's heart,
And fairly falling o'er each other's feet,
Demanding copies, mortals thronged the street
Before the doors of him who had to sell
The dainty verses that I loved so well. ”

“ They were bought by me!
Doloroso.
Roll on, drear world, nor stop to think of me.
I go to-day across the salt, salt sea.
I 'll head for Russia, where, the Czar defied,
I 'll save myself th' expense of suicide. ”