Good-better-best

Ellis Parker Butler

When young, in tones quite positive
  I said, “The world shall see
That I can keep myself from sin;
  A good man I will be.”

But when I loved Miss Kate St. Clair
  ’Twas thus my musing ran:
“I cannot be compared with her;
  I’ll be a better man.”

’Twas at the wedding of a friend
  (He married Kate St. Clair)
That I became superlative,
  For I was “best man” there.

Next 10 Poems

• Ellis Parker Butler : How'd You Like It?
• Ellis Parker Butler : Immortality
• Ellis Parker Butler : Jabed Meeker, Humorist
• Ellis Parker Butler : Little Ballads Of Timely Warning; I: On Dishonesty Arising From Ignorance
• Ellis Parker Butler : Little Ballads Of Timely Warning; Ii: On Malicious Cruelty To Harmless Creatures
• Ellis Parker Butler : Little Ballads Of Timely Warning; Iii: On Laziness And Its Resultant Ills
• Ellis Parker Butler : Mary Had A Little Frog
• Ellis Parker Butler : Maude's Valentine
• Ellis Parker Butler : Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!
• Ellis Parker Butler : Millennium

Previous 10 Poems

• Ellis Parker Butler : Golden Silence
• Ellis Parker Butler : Cupid Caught Napping
• Ellis Parker Butler : Circumstantial Evidence
• Ellis Parker Butler : Bird Nesting
• Ellis Parker Butler : At Variance
• Ellis Parker Butler : Anticipation
• Ellis Parker Butler : An Old-fashioned Garden
• Ellis Parker Butler : An Exception
• Ellis Parker Butler : A Study In Feeling
• Ellis Parker Butler : A St. Valentine's Day Tragedy