Story, Isaac

Anacreontic to a Little Pig’s Tale

1. LITTLE tail of Little Pig,
2. Once as merry as a grig;
3. Twisting up, and curling down,
4. When he grunted through the town;
5. Though by nature well design’d,
6. Low to wave in form behind,
7. Strong to guard each needful part,
8. And to dabble in the dirt.
9.  
10. Thee, I hail! so sweet and fair,
11. Tip of gristle, root of hair,
12. Courting either stump or log,
13. When attack’d by spiteful dog;
14. Gradual less’ning as a cone,
15. With thy curling points of bone;
16. Joints all grateful to the knife,
17. In the hour of deadly strife;
18. Knife of little roguish boy,
19. Who thee seizes for a toy –
20. When the butcher sad or grinning,
21. Round thy suburbs falls to cleaning,
22. With his smoking water hot,
23. Lately boiling in a pot;
24. Pot which often did contain
25. Dinner costly, dinner plain;
26. Dinner from the land and water,
27. Turtle soup and bullock’s quarter;
28. Lobster red as setting sun,
29. Duck destroy’d by faithful gun;
30. Side of sheep, joint of ram,
31. Breast of veal, leg of lamb,
32. Or a bit of oxen tripe;
33. Or a partridge, or a snipe;
34. Or a goose, or a widgeon;
35. Or a turkey, or a pigeon.
36.  
37. But of all it did contain,
38. What invokes the muse’s strain;
39. A delicious sav’ry soup
40. As was ever taken up;
41. Form’d of pettitoes and tail
42. Of animal that’s known to squeal.
43. Happy thrice, and thrice again,
44. Happiest he of happy men;
45. Who, with tail of little pig,
46. Thus can run a rhyming rig;
47. As of Delia, or of Anna,
48. On the gentle banks of Banna,
49. Bardlings write, and maidens sing,
50. Till with songs old cellars ring;
51. Till each hillock, dale, and alley,
52. Grows as vocal as the valley;
53. And in inspiration’s trance,
54. Oysters, clams, and mussels dance.
55. Happy thrice, and thrice again,
56. Happiest he of happy men;
57. Who with tail of little pig,
58. Thus can run a rhyming rig.