THE POET'S BIRTH:
A MYSTERY.
By the P—t L—te.
I.
I HATE the dreadful hollow behind the dirty town,
At the corner of its lips are oozing a foul ferruginous slime,
Like the toothless tobacco-cramm'd mouth of a hag who enriches the crown
By consuming th 'excised weed,—parent of smuggling crime!
II.
'Tis night; the shivering stars, wrapt in their cloud-blankets dreaming,
Forget to light an old crone, who to cross the hollow would try;
But watchful Aldebaran, in Taurus's head swift gleaming,