TO JOSEPH VALE ASBURY
Reading edition
Acrostic
Judgements are about us thoroughly; O'er all Enfield hangs the Cholera, Savage monster, none like him Ever rack'd a human limb. Pest, nor plague, nor fever yellow, Has made patients more to bellow.
Vain his threatnings! Asbury comes, And defiance beats by drums; Label, bottle, box, pill, potion, Each enlists in the commotion.
And with Vials, like to those Seen in Patmos[18], charged with woes, Breathing Wrath, he falls pell-mell Upon the Foe, and pays him well. Revenge!—he has made the monster sick Yea, Cholera vanish, choleric.
[Footnote 18: Vide Revelations.]
TO D[OROTHY] A[SBURY]
Acrostic
Divided praise, Lady, to you we owe, Of all the health your husband doth bestow, Respected wife of skilful Asbury! Oracular foresight named thee Dorothy; Tis a Greek word, and signifies God's Gift; (How Learning helps poor Poets at a shift!)— You are that gift. When, tired with human ails,
And tedious listening to the sick man's tales, Sore spent, and fretted, he comes home at eve, By mild medicaments you his toils deceive. Under your soothing treatment he revives; (Restorative is the smile of gentle wives): You lengthen his, who lengthens all our lives.