WRITTEN AFTER A WALK BEFORE SUPPER[37:3]

Tho' much averse, dear Jack, to flicker,
To find a likeness for friend V—ker,
I've made thro' Earth, and Air, and Sea,
A Voyage of Discovery!
And let me add (to ward off strife) [5]
For V—ker and for V—ker's Wife—
She large and round beyond belief,
A superfluity of beef!
[[38]]Her mind and body of a piece,
And both composed of kitchen-grease. [10]
In short, Dame Truth might safely dub her
Vulgarity enshrin'd in blubber!
He, meagre bit of littleness,
All snuff, and musk, and politesse;
So thin, that strip him of his clothing, [15]
He'd totter on the edge of Nothing!
In case of foe, he well might hide
Snug in the collops of her side.

Ah then, what simile will suit?
Spindle-leg in great jack-boot? [20]
Pismire crawling in a rut?
Or a spigot in a butt?
Thus I humm'd and ha'd awhile,
When Madam Memory with a smile
Thus twitch'd my ear—'Why sure, I ween, [25]
In London streets thou oft hast seen
The very image of this pair:
A little Ape with huge She-Bear
Link'd by hapless chain together:
An unlick'd mass the one—the other [30]
An antic small with nimble crupper——'
But stop, my Muse! for here comes supper.

1792.

FOOTNOTES:

[37:3] First published in 1796, and secondly in P. and D. W., 1877-80. These lines, described as 'A Simile', were sent in a letter to the Rev. George Coleridge, dated August 9 [1792]. The Rev. Fulwood Smerdon, the 'Vicar' of the original MS., succeeded the Rev. John Coleridge as vicar of Ottery St. Mary in 1781. He was the 'Edmund' of 'Lines to a Friend', &c., vide post, pp. [74, 75].

LINENOTES:

[Title]] Epistle iii. Written, &c., 1796.