Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive,
No gen'rous patron would a dinner give:
See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust!
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,—
He ask'd for bread, and he receiv'd a stone.

Notes from Wikiquote

[Printed in Miscellaneous Poems, by Several Hands (London: D. Lewis, 1726). The monument here referred to was erected in 1721, about forty years after the death of Butler]

Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive,No gen'rous patron would a dinner give:See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust,Presented with a monumental bust!The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,—He ask'd for bread, and he receiv'd a stone.

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Attribution

Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive,
No gen'rous patron would a dinner give:
See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust,
Presented with a monumental bust!
The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,—
He ask'd for bread, and he receiv'd a stone.