Читать книгу Terrible Tractoration, and Other Poems онлайн

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For many a popular almanac,

Within say half a century back,

We foretold every shine and storm

Which heaven can burnish or deform.

Though no two calendars agreed,

All were infallible indeed;

Of course no conjurer can stand higher

Than Caustic as a prophesier.

Discover’d worlds within the pale

Of tip-end of a tadpole’s tail,

And took possession of the same

In our good friend, Sir Joseph’s name;[14]

And soon shall publish, by subscription,

A topographical description

Of worlds aforesaid, which shall go forth

In fool’s cap folio, gilt, and so forth,—

Could tell how far a careless fly

Might chance to turn this globe awry,

If flitting round, in giddy circuit,

With leg or wing, he kick or jerk it!—[15]

The mystic characters of Nature,

We read like Spurtzheim or Lavater,

To us her lineaments are labels,

Which stare like capitals on play bills.

From bearings of the different osses,

And shapes of forehead, chin, proboscis,

The frons and occiput’s topography,

Can write a man’s complete biography.