THE VAMPIRE OF THE HOUR By Carolyn Wells 1900 (WITH APOLOGIES TO MR. KIPLING AND MR. BURNE- JONES)

A Response to Kipling's "The Vampire"

Kipling's "The Vampire" struck one hell of a note with readers. This is the second poetic response I've run into answering his diatribe against women.

THE VAMPIRE OF THE HOUR by Carolyn Wells 1900(WITH APOLOGIES TO MR. KIPLING AND MR. BURNE-JONES)

A FOOL there was, and he paid his fare

(Even as you and I!)

To see Le Gallienne's hank of hair

(We said he was only a fake affair).

But the fool he called him a genius rare,

(Even as you and 1!)

Oh, the fads we make, and the freaks we take.

And the glories we all believe

Belong to the jaundiced degenerate.

Or the mystical mattoid at any rate

With his handkerchief up his sleeve.

A critic there was, and he had his whack

(Even as you and I!) He wrote of a wondrous symposiac, (And it wasn't the least like Le Gallienne's clack).

But a critic must follow the beaten track

(Even as you and II)

Oh, the lies we write and the lies we cite

And the excellent things we say

About whatever may happen to be

The idol to which we bend the knee.

The fetish of the day.

The fool to meet the freak was bid,

(Even as you and I!)

Hoping he 'd show where his wit lay hid,

(But it isn't on record Le Gallienne did).

And the fool was bored, and so he slid

(Even as you and I!)

And it isn't the vice and it isn't the price

That causes our gloom profound;

It's coming to know that we all are fools.

And we 're just as foolish as other fools

Who follow the treadmill round.