Carolyn Wells 
Book of Humorous Verse 

Excerpt: "Quixotic is his enterprise and hopeless his adventure is, who seeks for jocularities that haven’t yet been said; The world has joked incessantly for over fifty centuries, And every joke that’s possible has long ago been made. I started as a humourist with lots of mental fizziness, But humour is a drug which it’s the fashion to abuse; For my stock-in-trade, my fixtures and the good-will of the business No reasonable offer I am likely to refuse. And if anybody choose He may circulate the news That no reasonable offer I am likely to refuse"