The Books I cannot hope to buy, Their phantoms round me waltz and wheel, They pass before the dreaming eye, Ere Sleep the dreaming eye can seal.
A kind of literary reel They dance; how fair the bindings shine!
Prose cannot tell them what I feel,--
The Books that never can be mine!
There frisk Editions rare and shy, Morocco clad from head to heel;Shakspearian quartos; Comedy As first she flashed from Richard Steele;And quaint De Foe on Mrs. Veal;
And, lord of landing net and line, Old Izaak with his fishing creel,--The Books that never can be mine!
Incunables! for you I sigh, Black letter, at thy founts I kneel, Old tales of Perrault's nursery, For you I'd go without a meal!
For Books wherein did Aldus deal And rare Galliot du Pre I pine.
The watches of the night reveal The Books that never can be mine!
ENVOY.
Prince, bear a hopeless Bard's appeal;
Reverse the rules of Mine and Thine;
Make it legitimate to steal The Books that never can be mine!
