Attributed to Col. Hudson, McClellan’s
Staff
THE DOMICIL ERECTED BY JOHN
BY A. POPE
-
- -
-
In
the proud cirque of Ivan’s bivouac.
The
golden stores in John’s pavilion laid.
Subtle
Grimalkin to his quarry glides,
Grimalkin
grim, that slew the fierce rodent,
Whose
tooth insidious Johann’s sackcloth rent!
That
vexed the avenger of the stolen malt,
Stored
in the hallowed precincts of that hall
That
rose complete at Jack’s creative call.
Whereon
the exacerbating hound was torn,
Who
bayed the feline slaughter-beast that slew
The
rat predaceous, whose keen fangs ran through
The
textile fibres that involved the grain,
Which
lay in Hans’ inviolate domain.
Lactiferous
spoils from vaccine dugs who drew,
Of
that corniculate beast whose tortured horn
Tossed
to the clouds, in fierce vindictive scorn,
The
harrying hound, whose braggart bark and stir
Arched
the lithe spine and reared the indignant fur
Of
puss, that with verminicidal claw
Struck
the weird rat, in whose insatiate maw
Lay
reeking malt, that erst in Juan’s court we saw
Too
long a prey to Chronos’ iron tooth
Behold
the man whose amorous lips incline,
Full
with young Eros’ osculative sign,
To
the ‘lorn maiden whose lact-albic hands
Drew
albu-lactic wealth from lacteal glands
Of
that immortal bovine, by whose horn
Distort,
to realms ethereal was borne
The
beast catulean; vexer of that sly
Ulysses
quadrupedal, who made die
The
old mordacious Rat that dared devour
Antecedaneous
ale In John’s domestic bower.
Of
saponaceous locks, the Priest who linked
In
Hymen’s golden bands the torn unthrift
Whose
means exiguous stared from many a rift
Even
as he kissed the virgin all forlorn
Who
milked the cow with implicated horn
Who
in fine wrath the canine torturer skied
That
dared to vex the insidious muricide
Who
let auroreal effluence through the pelt
Of
the sly rat that robbed the place Jack had built
Whose
shouts arose the shorn ecclesiast
Who
sealed the vows of Hymen's sacrament,
To
him who, robed in garments indigent
Exosculates
the damsel lachrymose,
The
emulgator of that horned brute morose
That
tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that kilt
The
rat that ate the malt that lay in the house Jack built.