Oliver Wendell Holmes

Cacoethes Scribendi

If all the trees in all the woods were men;
 And each and every blade of grass a pen;
 If every leaf on every shrub and tree
 Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea
 Were changed to ink, and all earth’s living tribes
 Had nothing else to do but act as scribes,
 And for ten thousand ages, day and night,
 The human race should write, and write, and write,
 Till all the pens and paper were used up,
 And the huge inkstand was an empty cup,
 Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink
 Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.
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