“SELDOM we find,” says Solomon Don Dunce,

“Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.

Through all the flimsy things we see at once

As easily as through a Naples bonnet —

Trash of all trash! how can a lady don it?

Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff,

Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff

Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it.”

And, veritably, Sol is right enough.

[[v]]

The general tuckermanities are arrant

Bubbles, ephemeral and so transparent;

But this is, now, you may depend upon it,

Stable, opaque, immortal — all by dint

Of the dear names that lie concealed within ’t.