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From The Wit and Humor of America, edited by Marshall P. Wilder, Volume III, New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls and Company, 1911; p. 485.


485

THE PLAINT OF JONAH

BY ROBERT J. BURDETTE

Why should I live, when every day

The wicked prospers in his way,

And daily adds unto his hoard,

While cutworms smite the good man’s gourd?

When I would rest beneath its shade

Comes the shrill-voiced book-selling maid,

And smites me with her tireless breath — 

Then am I angry unto death.

When I would slumber in my booth,

Who comes with accents loud and smooth,

And talks from dawn to midnight late?

The honest labor candidate.

Who pounds mine ear with noisy talk,

Whose brazen gall no ire can balk

And wearies me of life’s short span?

The accident insurance man.

And when, all other torments flown,

I think to call one hour mine own,

Who takes my leisure by the throat?

The villain taking up a vote.











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