Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1901 — THE TRIALS OF GENIUS. [ARTICLE]

THE TRIALS OF GENIUS.

Sometimes when Pm vworkin* jest —y very level best To write a high-toned poem, I feel terribly distressed To have to lay my pencil down an* go to doin’ chores Jest like a common mortal, while my fancy soars an’ soars. It’s kind o’ worryin’ to have a high-born genius while You don’t possess the wherewithal to run the thing in style; An’ when I put my writin’ by, some lowly task to do, I ask myself. “Did Shakespere uster to have his trials, too?” I fancy I c’n see him, now, a-workin’ on his plays, An’ runnin’ up agin’ the snags I find these later days. I S’pose jest when he’d strike a thought h« knowed was somethin’ good He’d have to leave it, then and there, an* go an’ split the wood. An’ when some big, inspirin' theme was jest about to dawn I calculate that that’s jest when he’d have to mow the lawn. An’ when the muse was soarin’ high—l’ve been right there, you know— The garden needed terdin* an’ he’d have, to use the hoe. A genius hain’t got any.right to have to putter round A-doin* all the common things that everywhere abound: His hull big lifework ort to be to sort <r , rest an* wait An* kind o’ let his hair grow out an’ think o’ something great. That’s what I tell Eliza —she’s my wifehut, no-sir-ee! Fer thirty year that woman has been jest a-houndin’ me; An’ when I tell her genius ain’t no hand at doin’ chores, She smiles an’ says, “Well, genius, then, ’ill have to sleep outdoors!” —Nixon Waterman, in Puck.