Perceiving others fairly flown, For tawdry finery is seen A NEW SIMILE. IN THE MANNER OF SWIFT. Long had I sought in vain to find * [Printed in the Essays, 1765.] Imprimis; pray observe his hat, Well! what is it from thence we gather? In the next place, his feet peruse, His feet are useful as his head. Lastly, vouchsafe t' observe his hand, Fill'd with a snake-encircled wand; By classic authors term'd Caduceus, And highly fam'd for several uses. To wit-most wond'rously endu'd, No poppy-water half so good; For let folks only get a touch,. Its soporific virtue's such, Though ne'er so much awake before, That quickly they begin to snore. Add too, what certain writers tell, With this he drives men's souls to Hell. Now to apply, begin we then : His wand's a modern author's pen; The serpents round about it twin'd, And here my simile almost tript; Yet grant a word by way of postscript. Moreover Merc'ry had a failing: Well what of that? out with it-stealing; In which all modern bards agree, Being each as great a thief as he: But ev'n this deity's existence Shall lend my simile assistance. Our modern bards! why, what a pox Are they but senseless stones and blocks? STANZAS. ON WOMAN.* When lovely woman stoops to folly, First printed in the "Vicar of Wakefield," in 1766.] The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, And wring his bosom-is to die.* ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A MAD DOG.t Good people all, of every sort, In Islington there was a man, A kind and gentle heart he had, When he put on his clothes. ["This specimen of Goldsmith's poetical powers is wonderfully pathetic. It is sweet as music, and polished like a gem."-Mrs. BARBAULD.] [First printed in the "Vicar of Wakefield," 1766, though probably written at an earlier period; perhaps in 1760, as we find in the "Citizen of the World," (see vol. ii. p. 287,) an amusing paper in which Goldsmith ridicules the fear of mad dogs as one of those epidemic terrors to which the people of England are occasionally prone.] |