Epigrams, to be successful, must be very successful—we hope this
is not to be construed as an epigram, by the way, because, if so, it is a bad one by our own standard—for nothing is less worth putting into print than third-rate efforts at this most deliberate and difficult of all literary tricks. Epigrams should shock, amaze, or delight at the first glance : and how few writers can make them do it !
Mr. H, V. F. Somerset can, occasionally, but his having written :— POSSIBLE ADVICE FROM A FRIEND.
You say you've pruned out half your verses, And now print those that seem the best.
You've made a slip I think—the worse is
Surely this half—print the rest.
which is certainly neat, does not, we think, justify the publication of such efforts as this :- EXTREME DEMOCRACY.
Yes Mr. Sniggering Snooks is in : No need to start, or show surprise r For he's the very man to win, He kisses babies, and tells lies.
Since we all know that this sort of thing goes on at election times, the mere raw announcement of it in rhyme is super- fluous. Mr. Somerset, however, is as good as his word, and in Half a Hundred Epigrams (Cobden-Sanderson, 2s. 6d.) gives us fifty chances. One cannot expect to be lucky every time.
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