Classic Poem

ON RECEIVING A BAD FALL IN A HARD FROST, AND PITCHING ON MY HEAD .

 “A nodding beam, or pig of lead,
Will break the very ablest head.”
 The little Bard thus warn'd the rest,
But wav'd the honours of the test ;
Nor ever, but in verse or prose,
Would his mercurial brain expose.
I wonder his prophetic view
Could miss the legs that upward flew,
When ice the careless path deceives,
And spread on earth a Poet leaves,
To die with his effusions here,
Or live and combat vulgar sneer.
 As I was tripping t'other day,
And thinking of a bout rimé ,
I fell upon a ticklish place;
My head receiv'd the earth's embrace.
Encircled by a laughing crowd,
I heard it said, and said aloud,
“That such a knock, the head unbroke,
Found the materials hard as oak.”
Another call'd my head stone-proof ,
And wish'd his own had such a roof.
 “My good Samaritans! ” I said,
“It is a wager I have laid;
That, grappling with my rival here,
I 'd leave a secret in his ear,
Which is—that Law to Earth oppos'd
Is neither foil'd nor discompos'd;
But, like Antœus , from the Earth
Springs with a renovated birth;
On pavements jerk'd, is quite at home,
And feels them lighter than a comb.
But stone perhaps, at least I fear it,
Had rather not have me come near it;
And you should ask your friends below,
If they are better for their blow .”
 “Zounds, Tom ,” quoth Jack , “this funny head
Within—has not a bit of lead.”