Pardon me if I dodge your compliments.
I've no stomach to fatten on flattery.
I giggle to suppose there is any sense
in words grown obsequious and sugary.
Pardon me if I dodge your compliments.
God only is good the Master's words declare.
And since humility is last in virtue's larder,
appetite must work hard to supper there.
Your rhetoric only makes that work harder.
Pardon me if I dodge your compliments.