Classic Poem

A TALE .

I.

In Animalcules, Muse! display
Spirits of name unknown in song.
Reader! a kind attention pay,
Nor think an useful comment long.

II.

Far less than mites, on mites they prey;
Minutest things may swarms contain:
When o'er your iv'ry teeth they stray,
Then throb your little nerves with pain.

III.

Fluids in drops minutely swell;
These subtile beings each contains;
In the small sanguine globes they dwell,
Roll from the heart, and trace the veins.

IV.

Thro' ev'ry tender tube they rove,
In finer spirits strike the brain,
Wind quick thro' ev'ry fibrous grove,
And seek thro' pores, the heart again.

V.

If they with purer drops dilate,
And lodge where entity began,
They actuate with a genial heat,
And kindle into future man.

VI.

But when our lives are Nature's due,
Air, seas, nor fire, their frames dissolve,
They matter thro' all forms pursue,
And oft' to genral heats revolve.

VII.

Thus once an Animalcule prov'd,
When man, a patron to the bays,
This patron was in Greece belov'd,
Yet fame was faithless to his praise.

VIII.

In Rome this Animalcule grew
Mecaenas, whom the Classics rate;
Among the Gauls it prov'd Richlieu,
In learning, pow'r, and bounty great.

IX.

In Britain Halifax it rose;
(By Halifax bloom'd Congreve's strains)
And now it redimmish'd glows
To glide thro' godlike Rutland's veins.

X.

A plague there is, too many know,
Too seldom perfect cures befall it;
The Muse may term it Beauty's foe,
In physic the Small-pox we call it.

XI.

From Turks we learn this plague t' assuage,
They, by admitting, turn its course;
Their kiss will time the tumor's rage;
By yielding they o'ercome the force.

XII.

Thus Rutland did its touch invite,
While, watchful in the ambient air,
This little guardian subtile spright
Did with the poison in repair.

XIII.

Th' infection from the heart it clears;
Th' infection now dilated thin,
In pearly pimples but appears,
Expell'd upon the surface skin.

XIV.

And now it mould'ring wastes away:
'Tis gone! — doom'd to return no more;
Our Animalcule keeps its stay,
And must new labyrinths explore.

XV.

And now the noble's thoughts are seen,
Unmark'd, it views his heart's desires;
It now reflects what it has been,
And, rapt'rous, at his change admires.

XVI.

Its pristine virtues kept, combine,
To be again in Rutland known;
But they, immers'd, no longer shine,
Nor equal, nor increase his own.