1876

FAME'S PENNY-TRUMPET

by Lewis Carroll

FAME'S PENNY-TRUMPET -

[Affectionately dedicated to all "original researchers"

who pant for "endowment".] -

BLOW, blow your trumpets till they crack,

Ye little men of little souls!

And bid them huddle at your back-

Gold-sucking leeches, shoals on shoals! -

Fill all the air with hungry wails-

"Reward us, ere we think or write!

Without your Gold mere Knowledge fails

To sate the swinish appetite!" -

And, where great Plato paced serene,

Or Newton paused with wistful eye,

Rush to the chace with hoofs unclean

And Babel-clamour of the sty. -

Be yours the pay: be theirs the praise:

We will not rob them of their due,

Nor vex the ghosts of other days

By naming them along with you. -

They sought and found undying fame:

They toiled not for reward nor thanks:

Their cheeks are hot with honest shame

For you, the modern mountebanks! -

Who preach of Justice- plead with tears

That Love and Mercy should abound-

While marking with complacent ears

The moaning of some tortured hound: -

Who prate of Wisdom- nay, forbear,

Lest Wisdom turn on you in wrath,

Trampling, with heel that will not spare,

The vermin that beset her path! -

Go, throng each other's drawing-rooms,

Ye idols of a petty clique:

Strut your brief hour in borrowed plumes

And make your penny-trumpets squeak: -

Deck your dull talk with pilfered shreds

Of learning from a nobler time,

And oil each other's little heads

With mutual Flattery's golden slime: -

And when the topmost height ye gain,

And stand in Glory's ether clear,

And grasp the prize of all your pain-

So many hundred pounds a year- -

Then let Fame's banner be unfurled!

Sing Paeans for a victory won!

Ye tapers, that would light the world,

And cast a shadow on the Sun- -

Who still shall pour His rays sublime,

One crystal flood, from East to West,

When ye have burned your little time

And feebly flickered into rest! - -