Explore "Exchange of Compliments" by Thomas Burke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
At ten o'clock last night an ugly fellow, / Of skinny exterior and most ungracious manner, / Was thrown with a total loss of gravity / From the flapping doors of the Blue Lantern.
He lurched in most ungainly fashion past this person's shop -- / This person standing at his door -- / And used base language of an unpolished nature, / Calling him Ugly Yellow Bastard, / Hop Fiend and Dirty Doper, / Eater of Dogs and Cheater at Puckapoo, / Son-of-a-Bitch and devotee of vice.
This person did not respond in like manner, / Knowing that he is not himself all-perfect, / Nor even in every hour / A devout follower of the teachings of the Four Books. / He contented himself with repeating in a far-reaching tone, / The words of the lofty Lao Tzu: / When pot upon stove reproveth kettle for blackness, / Pot speaking out of turn.