Art And Poetry

TO HOMER DAVENPORT      Wess he says, and sort o' grins,      "Art and Poetry is twins!      "Yit, if I'd my pick, I'd shake      Poetry, and no mistake!      "Pictures, allus, 'peared to me,      Clean laid over Poetry!      "Let me draw, and then, i jings,      I'll not keer a straw who sings.      "'F I could draw as you have drew,      Like to jes' swop pens with you!      "Picture-drawin' 's my pet vision      Of Life-work in Lands Elysian.      "Pictures is first language we      Find hacked out in History.      "Most delight we ever took      Was in our first Picture-book.      "'Thout the funny picture-makers,      They'd be lots more undertakers!      "Still, as I say, Rhymes and Art      'Smighty hard to tell apart.      "Songs and pictures go together      Same as birds and summer weather."      So Wess says, and sort o' grins,      "Art and Poetry is twins."