Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MOSQUITO NETTING, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MOSQUITO NETTING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Mosquitoes thick at daisy spring?
Last Line: Slay! Slay! Before he draws a breath.
Subject(s): Mosquitoes


Mosquitoes thick at Daisy Spring?
Why, every zephyr bore a sting,
And not a turn to left or right
But meant another burning bite,
And not a bird song could you hear
For that shrill buzzing in the ear.

Mosquito netting white and red
Half smothered every groaning bed,
And not a window could be seen
Without its view-destroying screen,
Yet vain was all that we could do;
Somehow, somewhere, the pests got through.

But Daisy Springers, one fine May,
Set out to drive the pests away.
They dosed the ponds with kerosene,
They cleaned the streets and kept them clean,
And nothing stagnant, foul, unsound,
Was left an hour above the ground.

And now, behold! at Daisy Spring
We hear no buzz, we fear no sting.
In all our beatific town
Mosquito nettings have come down,
And merrily, as folks should do,
We live outdoors the summer through.

Well, you have heard, and you are wise;
No need at length to moralize.
The world is full of stinging sin,
At every crack the plague flies in,
And clumsily the fiends we fight
With net and screen -- and still they bite.

Oh, to the breeding foulness go,
And kill them in the embryo!
Away with temporizing screen!
Wash out the heart, and keep it clean!
Whoso would do a fiend to death,
Slay! slay! before he draws a breath.





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