[
  {
    "title": "Lord Byron's Verses on Sam Rogers",
    "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron",
    "lines": [
      "QUESTION.",
      "",
      "Nose and Chin that make a knocker,",
      "Wrinkles that would puzzle Cocker;",
      "Mouth that marks the envious Scorner,",
      "With a Scorpion in each corner",
      "Curling up his tail to sting you,",
      "In the place that most may wring you;",
      "Eyes of lead-like hue and gummy,",
      "Carcase stolen from some mummy,",
      "Bowels--(but they were forgotten,",
      "Save the Liver, and that's rotten),",
      "Skin all sallow, flesh all sodden,",
      "Form the Devil would frighten G--d in.",
      "Is't a Corpse stuck up for show,",
      "Galvanized at times to go?",
      "With the Scripture has't connection,",
      "New proof of the Resurrection?",
      "Vampire, Ghost, or Goul (_sic_), what is it?",
      "I would walk ten miles to miss it.",
      "",
      "ANSWER.",
      "",
      "Many passengers arrest one,",
      "To demand the same free question.",
      "Shorter's my reply and franker,--",
      "That's the Bard, and Beau, and Banker:",
      "Yet, if you could bring about",
      "Just to turn him inside out,",
      "Satan's self would seem less sooty,",
      "And his present aspect--Beauty.",
      "Mark that (as he masks the bilious)",
      "Air so softly supercilious,",
      "Chastened bow, and mock humility,",
      "Almost sickened to Servility:",
      "Hear his tone (which is to talking",
      "That which creeping is to walking--",
      "Now on all fours, now on tiptoe):",
      "Hear the tales he lends his lip to--",
      "Little hints of heavy scandals--",
      "Every friend by turns he handles:",
      "All that women or that men do",
      "Glides forth in an inuendo (_sic_)--",
      "Clothed in odds and ends of humour,",
      "Herald of each paltry rumour--",
      "From divorces down to dresses,",
      "Woman's frailties, Man's excesses:",
      "All that life presents of evil",
      "Make for him a constant revel.",
      "You're his foe--for that he fears you,",
      "And in absence blasts and sears you:",
      "You're his friend--for that he hates you,",
      "First obliges, and then baits you,",
      "Darting on the opportunity",
      "When to do it with impunity:",
      "You are neither--then he'll flatter,",
      "Till he finds some trait for satire;",
      "Hunts your weak point out, then shows it,",
      "Where it injures, to expose it",
      "In the mode that's most insidious,",
      "Adding every trait that's hideous--",
      "From the bile, whose blackening river",
      "Rushes through his Stygian liver.",
      "",
      "Then he thinks himself a lover--",
      "Why? I really can't discover,",
      "In his mind, age, face, or figure;",
      "Viper broth might give him vigour:",
      "Let him keep the cauldron steady,",
      "He the venom has already.",
      "",
      "For his faults--he has but _one_;",
      "'Tis but Envy, when all's done:",
      "He but pays the pain he suffers,",
      "Clipping, like a pair of Snuffers,",
      "Light that ought to burn the brighter",
      "For this temporary blighter.",
      "He's the Cancer of his Species,",
      "And will eat himself to pieces,--",
      "Plague personified and Famine,--",
      "Devil, whose delight is damning.",
      "For his merits--don't you know 'em?",
      "Once he wrote a pretty Poem."
    ],
    "linecount": "78"
  }
]