Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, INOCULATION FOR THE SMALL POX, by JOHN BYROM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INOCULATION FOR THE SMALL POX, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I heard two neighbours talk the other night
Last Line: As when in health to drive it there by art?
Subject(s): Death; Graves; Health; Sickness; Small Pox; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones; Illness


I HEARD two neighbours talk the other night
About this new distemper-giving plan,
Which some—so wrong, and others think—so right;
Short was the dialogue, and thus it ran,—
"If I had twenty children of my own,
"I would inoculate them ev'ry one."
Ay, but should any of them die, what moan
Would then be made for venturing thereupon!
"No; I should think that I had done the best,
"And be resign'd whatever should befall."
But could you really be so quite at rest?
"I could."—Then why inoculate at all,
Since to resign a child to God, who gave,
Is full as easy and as just a part
When sick and led by nature to the grave,
As when in health to drive it there by art?





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