To Mr. Murray [TO hook the Reader, you, John Murray]

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Title:     To Mr. Murray [TO hook the Reader, you, John Murray]
Author: Lord Byron [More Titles by Byron]

TO hook the Reader, you, John Murray,
Have published "Anjou's Margaret,"[1]
Which won't be sold off in a hurry
(At least, it has not been as yet);
And then, still further to bewilder him,
Without remorse, you set up "Ilderim;"[2]
So mind you don't get into debt,--
Because--as how--if you should fail,
These books would be but baddish bail.
And mind you do _not_ let escape
These rhymes to _Morning Post_ or Perry,
Which would be _very_ treacherous--_very_,
And get me into such a scrape!
For, firstly, I should have to sally,
All in my little boat, against a _Galley_;
And, should I chance to slay the Assyrian wight,
Have next to combat with the female Knight:
And pricked to death expire upon her needle,
A sort of end which I should take indeed ill!

March 25, 1817.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 91.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [_Margaret of Anjou_, by Margaret Holford, 1816.]

[2] [_Ilderim, a Syrian Tale_, by H. Gaily Knight, 1816.]

[The end]
Lord Byron's poem: To Mr. Murray

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