lean-pursed

Updated: June 21, 2025

Then I turn about my chair So that I can dimly see Into the dark corners where Lies my modest library. I have not the rare Lucasta, London, 1649; I'm a lean-pursed poetaster, Or the book had long been mine.... And the muse of Lycidas, Lost in meditation deep, Give the cut to Hudibras, Unaware the knave's asleep....

William Lyon Phelps - The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth Century