13
ON A SLANDERER
From yonder tomb of recent date,
There comes a strange mephitic blast.
Here lies—Ha! Backbite, you at last—
'Tis he indeed: and sure as fate,
They buried him in overhaste—
Into the earth he has been cast,
And in this grave,
Before the man had breathed his last.
1799. First published from an MS. in 1893. An expansion of [Epigram] No. 12.