<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">On a Too Prolific Essayist</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THE cruellest torture that a man can know,</p><p class="line">Passing all Torquemada's racks, is said</p><p class="line">To be the ceaseless, measured, leisured, slow</p><p class="line">Drip-drop of water on the victim's head.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Surely it were a torment like in kind,</p><p class="line">If in degree less maddening, to sit still</p><p class="line">Under the leakage of this good man's mind,</p><p class="line">The eternal trickle of this blameless quill.</p></div></body></html> · Great War