"The Damanreadabook" Henry Lawson, 1906 'Twas born a Wantaritencant, and, ah! its claws got jammed — It stunned and rode a publisher and it was read and damned. They soothed or dodged It in the street, they said they was mistook They turned it loose for pity's sake, a Damanreadabook. They turned it loose on Kipling first and men of his estate; The Damanreadabook is safe amongst the dead and great. (And I am but a little man — it pleaseth me to look As through a microscope upon the Damanreadabook). It gets its titles missed, of course, and half-quotes with a glare And just as oft as not it damns the thing that isn't there, Then forth it goeth happily and babbles like a brook While people buy the book it damned - the Damanreadabook. I hate the Half-Read and Half-Dam, the Readandamoutright, And, above all the Readanjaw is hateful in my sight. But the Damanreadabook a time — and — money saving spook, Its selling mine like wildfire now, that Damanreadabook.