Poems on Various Subjects (Coleridge)/Epistle 3, written after a Walk

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

EPISTLE III.

WRITTEN AFTER

A WALK BEFORE SUPPER.

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)
For V—ker and for V—ker's Wife—
She large and round beyond belief,
A superfluity of Beef!
Her mind and body of a piece,
And both compos'd of kitchen-grease.

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 cloathing,
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?
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,
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
An antic small^{[errata 1]} with nimble crupper——"
But stop, my Muse! for here comes Supper.

Errata

1. Original: antic huge was amended to antic small: detail