In Reply to his Solicitation to Write with him in a Literary Work

Dear architect of fine Chateaux en l'air ,
Worthier to stand for ever, if they could,
Than any built with stone, or yet with wood
For back of royal elephant to bear! —
Oh for my youth again, that I might share,
Much to my own, tho' little to thy good,
With thee, not subject to the jealous mood,
A partnership of literary ware!
But I am bankrupt now, and doom'd henceforth
To drudge, in descant dry, on others' lays,
Bards, I acknowledge, of unequall'd worth,
But what is commentator's happiest praise?
That he has furnish'd lights for others' eyes,
Which they who need them use, and then despise.