68 LINES TO A MOSQUITO. 



Nature, the American Bryant, cannot be deemed foreign to 

 the subject of these, his native Gnats ; and they are, more- 

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

 new use to which they might apply the cosmetic mask of 

 Eowland manufacture. That celebrated conservator of fe- 

 male charms might do well to reprint them himself, in form 

 of an advertisement : 



TO A MOSQUITO. 



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



And blood-extracting bill, and filmy wing, 

 Dost murmur, as thou slowly sails' t about, 



In pitiless ears, full many a plaintive thing, 

 And tell how little our large veins should bleed, 

 Would we 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, 



For saying thou art gaunt and starved and faint : 

 E'en the old beggar while he asks for food 

 Would kill thee, hapless stranger, if he could. 



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



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, c 

 Rose in the sky, and bore thee soft along : 



