Let me down easy, reader, say...

By Wallace Irwin

Let me down easy, reader, say!

Do n't run the bluff that you are on,

Or proudly scoff at every toff

Who rattles off a rag-time con.

Get next to how the French Villon,

Before Jack Hangman yanked him high,

Quilled slangy guff and Frenchy stuff

And kicked up rough the same as I.

And Byron, Herrick, Burns, forby,

Got gay with Erato, much the same

As I now do to show to you

The way into the Hall of Fame.