Explore "The Mercury's Plaint" by Carolyn Wells on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I don't know why I'm slandered so, / If I go high, -- if I go low, -- / There's always some one who will say, / "Just see that mercury to-day! " / And whether toward the top I crawl / Or down toward zero I may fall, / They always fret, and say that I / Am far too low or far too high. / Although I try with all my might, / I never seem to strike it right. / Now I admit it seems to me / They show great inconsistency. / But _they_ imply _I_ am to blame; / Of course that makes my anger flame, / And in a fiery fit of pique / I stay at ninety for a week. / Or sometimes in a dull despair, / I give them just a frigid stare; / And as upon their taunts I think / My spirits down to zero sink. / Mine is indeed a hopeless case; / To strive to please the human race!