# Alexander Sergheyevich Pooshkin.To Poet

Василий Иванович Панченко

You-Gentleman! by dint of long seclusion...

To Poet


You-Gentleman! by dint of long seclusion

From better company, have kept your own

And Piter, and, through still continued fusion

Of one another's minds, at last have grown

To deem as a most logical conclusion,

That Poesy has wreaths for you alone:

There is a narrowness in such a notion,

Which makes me wish you'd change your lakes for ocean.

I would not imitate the petty thought,

Nor coin my self-love to so base a vice,

For all the glory your conversion brought,

Since gold alone should not have its price.

You have your salary; was't for that you wrought?

And Poet has his place in the Excise.

You're shabby fellows -true- but poet still,

And duly scated on the immortal hill.


1814