The Anatomy of the Epigram

— “ Omne Epigramma sit instar apis aculeo illi,
Sint sua mella, sit et corporis exigui,”

chants the old Latin poet, and is felicitously followed by his English translator : — “ Three things must epigrams, like bees, have all,— A sting, and honey, and a body small.” In a survey of the requisites thus indicated, it would appear that, of the three, the one most easily achievable is “the little mite of a body.” But as to the “ honey ” and the “ sting,” the due proportion of each, the neophyte must exercise the greatest care ; for the “ honey ” without the “ sting ” results in a diminutive lyric, while the “ sting ” without the “ honey ” produces a mere philippic in two lines. If the present adventurer, in the subjoined experiments, shall be found simply to have been tossed from one alternate danger to the other, at least he begs to cover his retreat under an old, serviceable, and ingenious borrowing in which none of the three requisites is lacking, — “Video meliora, proboque ; Deteriora sequor.”

AN AUTOGRAPH.

He wrote upon the sand his autograph;
A little wave erased it with a laugh.

DISTINCTION.

When past Oblivion’s pale the throng upstarts,
Seek we the shade and a few quiet hearts.

A RHYME OF LIFE.

Dost think it was for nothing that “ to-morrow ”
The Muse from oldest time has linked with “ sorrow ” ?

THE DERELICT.

He drifts along as his lost Genius becks,
A wreck of Fate, and fated source of wrecks.

OPINION.

In gulf — or pool — their fathom-line they sink,
And still they strive to think what they do think.

NODDING CRITICS.

You saw good Homer nod ? But I saw you ;
Asleep you were ! (Some say that I slept, too.)