Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SAINT JONATHAN, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SAINT JONATHAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There's many an excellent saint
Last Line: Is the mightiest saint of the lot!
Subject(s): Saints


THERE's many an excellent Saint, --
St. George, with his dragon and lance;
St. Patrick, so jolly and quaint;
St. Vitus, the saint of the dance;
St. Denis, the saint of the Gaul;
St. Andrew, the saint of the Scot;
But JONATHAN, youngest of all,
Is the mightiest saint of the lot!

He wears a most serious face,
Well worthy a martyr's possessing;
But it isn't all owing to grace,
But partly to thinking and guessing;
In sooth, our American Saint
Has rather a secular bias,
And I never have heard a complaint
Of his being excessively pious!

He's fond of financial improvement,
And is always extremely inclined
To be starting some practical movement
For mending the morals and mind.
Do you ask me what wonderful labors
ST. JONATHAN ever has done
To rank with his Calendar neighbors?
Just listen, a moment, to one:

One day when a flash in the air
Split his meeting-house fairly asunder,
Quoth JONATHAN, "Now, I declare,
They're dreadfully careless with thunder!"
So he fastened a rod to the steeple;
And now, when the lightning comes round,
He keeps it from building and people,
By running it into the ground!

Reflecting, with pleasant emotion,
On the capital job he had done,
Quoth JONATHAN: "I have a notion
Improvements have barely begun;
If nothing's created in vain, --
As ministers often inform us, --
The lightning that's wasted, 't is plain
Is really something enormous!"

While ciphering over the thing,
At length he discovered a plan
To catch the Electrical King,
And make him the servant of man;
And now, in an orderly way,
He flies on the fleetest of pinions,
And carries the news of the day
All over his master's dominions!

One morning, while taking a stroll,
He heard a lugubrious cry, --
Like the shriek of a suffering soul, --
In a Hospital standing near by;
Anon, such a terrible groan
Saluted St. JONATHAN'S ear
That his bosom -- which wasn't of stone --
Was melted with pity to hear.

That night he invented a charm
So potent that folks who employ it,
In losing a leg or an arm,
Don't suffer, but rather enjoy it!
A miracle, you must allow,
As good as the best of his brothers, --
And blessed ST. JONATHAN now
Is patron of cripples and mothers!

There's many an excellent Saint, --
St. George, with his dragon and lance
St. Patrick, so jolly and quaint;
St. Vitus, the saint of the dance;
St. Denis, the saint of the Gaul;
St. Andrew, the saint of the Scot;
But JONATHAN, youngest of all,
Is the mightiest saint of the lot!





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