68 LINES TO A MOSQUITO. 



Nature, the American Bryant, cannot be deemed foreign to the 

 subject of these, his native Gnats; and they are, moreover, 

 suggestive to the ladies, at home as well as abroad, of a new 

 use to which they might apply the cosmetic mask of Rowland 

 manufacture. That celebrated conservator of female charms 

 might do well to reprint them himself, in form of an adver- 

 tisement. 



TO A MOSQUITO. 



Fair Insect, that, with thread-like legs spread out. 



\ml blood-extracting bill, and filmy wing, 

 I'<| murmur, as thou slowly sails't about, 



In pitiless cars, full many a plaintive tiling, 

 \ud tell how little our large veins should bleed, 

 Would \vc but yield them to thy bitter need. 



Unwillingly, I own, and what is worse, 



Full angrily, men hearken to thy plaint ; 

 Thou gettest many a brush and many a curse, 



I 'in- saying thou art gaunt and starved and faint: 

 E'en the old beggar while lie asks for food 

 Would kill thee, hapless stranger, if he could. 



I call thee stranger, for the Town, I weeu, 



Has not the honour of so proud a birth, 

 Thou com'st from Jersey meadows fresh and green 



The offspring of the Gods, tho' born on earth ; 

 For Titan was thy sire, and fair was she, 

 The Ocean Nymph that nursed thy infancy. 



Beneath the rushes was thy cradle swung, 



And when, at length, thy gauzy wings grew strong, 



Abroad, to gentle airs their folds were flung, 

 Rose iu the sky, and bore thee soft alon. 



