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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CAMELUS SALTAT: 1 by GEORGE MEREDITH

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHAT SAY YOU, CRITIC, NOW YOU HAVE BECOME
Last Line: YOU DEALT? -- THE VOICE AUSTERE, THE JEER, THE SNEER
Subject(s): CRITICISM & CRITICS; POETRY & POETS;

WHAT say you, critic, now you have become
An author and maternal? -- in this trap
(To quote you) of poor hollow folk who rap
On instruments as like as drum to drum.
You snarled tut-tut for welcome to tum-tum,
So like the nose fly-teased in its noon's nap.
You scratched an insect-slaughtering thunder-clap
With that between the fingers and the thumb.
It seemeth mad to quit the Olympian couch,
Which bade our public gobble or reject.
O spectacle of Peter, shrewdly pecked,
Piper, by his own pepper from his pouch!
What of the sneer, the jeer, the voice austere,
You dealt? -- the voice austere, the jeer, the sneer



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