The Microbe

Hilaire Belloc 1870 (La Celle-Saint-Cloud) – 1953



The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen--
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that they must be so....
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 30, 2023

29 sec read
431

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 517
Words 99
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902, but kept his French citizenship. more…

All Hilaire Belloc poems | Hilaire Belloc Books

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