A Riddle

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Title:     A Riddle
Author: J. C. Manning [More Titles by Manning]

A riddle of riddles: Who'll give it a name?
A portrait of God in a worm-eaten frame.
A mount in his own eye--in others' a mite;
The foot-boy of Wrong, and the headsman of Right;
A vaunter of Virtue--yet dallies with Vice;
From the cope to the basement bought up at a price;
A vane in his friendship--in folly a rock;
In custom a time-piece--in manners a mock;
A fib under fashion--a fool under form;
In charity chilly--in wealth-making warm:
In hatred satanic--a lambkin in love;
A hawk in religion with coo of a dove;
A riddle unravelled--a story untold;
A worm deemed an idol if covered with gold.
A dog in a gutter--a God on a throne:
In slander electric--in justice a drone:
A parrot in promise, and frail as a shade;
A hooded immortal in life's masquerade;
A sham-lacquered bauble, a bubble, a breath:
A boaster in life-time--a coward in death.

[The end]
J. C. Manning's poem: Riddle

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