From Richard Armour’s Yours for the Asking (1942)

Not Envious

 Solomon was plenty wise,
 Croesus had the gold,
 Washington would tell no lies,
 Napoleon was bold,
 Samson gloried in his might,
 Columbus could discover,
 Shakespeare knew just how to write,
 Byron — what a lover!

 Yet when everything is said
 And done, I think that I’ve
 The best of it, for they’re all dead,
 While I am still alive!

From Phyllis McGinley’s A Short Walk to the Station (1951)

Reflections on a Dark Day

 Now and then there seems some doubt
 I have much to brag about.
 Cleo, serpent of the Nile,
 Owned a more romantic style,
 Mary upped more Scottish bonnets,
 Laura won diviner sonnets,
 Saint Theresa’s soul was sunnier,
 Austen wrote a good deal funnier,
 Braver far was Molly Pitcher,
 Even Hetty Green got richer.

 Now and then I tell my mirror:
 Isolde’s lovers held her dearer,
 Joan was better versed in miracle,
 Sappho’s poems read more lyrical,
 Staël attracted people wittier,
 Jenny Lind could carol prettier,
 And it’s plain that Helen’s powers
 Burnt a lot more topless towers.
 Still and all, there’s this I’ve got —
 They are dead and I am not.