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A Beetle contemptible, now,

Of said fable the hero I choose;--

For I want one paltry and low.



Of this insect, every one knows

That--although from no filth he refrains--

He will ne'er eat the leaf of a rose.



Here the author should lavish his pains,

While, as well as his talents allow,

This astonishing taste he explains.



To wind up the whole, let him show,

By a sentence pithy and terse,

Just what he could have us to know.



And so let him trick out his verse,

With adornments according to taste;

But this moral conclusive rehearse;



That, as the flowers' beautiful queen

With no coarse, filthy beetle agrees;

So, some tasteless writers no keen

Or delicate fancy can please.