Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FAMILIAR, by EDWARD HARRY WILLIAM MEYERSTEIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FAMILIAR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Mannikin with the tail
Last Line: By the new grave to-morrow night.
Alternate Author Name(s): Meyerstein, E. H. W.
Subject(s): Oxford University


MANNIKIN with the tail,
Upon the curtain climbing,
I would that I were rhyming
As fast as you can scale
Whate'er you will, Homunculus,
From cedar to ranunculus.

Mannikin with the tail,
You bobbing piece of magic,
I'll do a deed so tragic,
If but your power avail,
Betwixt the hours of twelve and one,
'Twill blot the light from off the sun.

Mannikin with the tail,
I'd gladly know who bore you,
The family before you,
What woman and what male:
Did Incubus beget you, babe,
Upon a chymist's astrolabe?

Mannikin with the tail,
Did Incubus beget you,
And thereon slyly set you
Amid a pelting gale,
Just spawned, his fantasy to please,
From tincture of Hippomanes?

Mannikin with the tail,
While Chymist unbelieving,
His wily soul deceiving
Upon th' Elixir's trail,
Could only hear a rainy sound
Upon his astrolabe rebound.

Mannikin with the tail,
Could Paracelsus dull him,
So mischievously gull him,
Sad fool of pot and pail,
As to pursue a quest forlorn
The very hour that you were born?

Mannikin with the tail,
Abridge your easy dances
That hazard all our chances;
For sure the spell is frail,
Whose binding words be only writ
After the owl and darkness flit.

Mannikin with the tail,
The labour's almost ended,
By which I'll be defended
From neighbour Gorbo's rail;
For you shall take this parchment roll
And pass it o'er his sleeping poll.

Mannikin with the tail,
A pox upon your swinging!
The hour is well nigh ringing,
And shall my magic fail?
So be no sound from curtain heard
Whenas I add the final word.

Mannikin with the tail,
Upon the curtain climbing,
I now have done the rhyming
Which he will sore bewail:
Take it -- and we shall chant his plight
By the new grave to-morrow night.





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