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Jonathan Swift - A Receipt To Restore Stella’s Youth. 1724-5
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The Scottish hinds, too poor to house
In frosty nights their starving cows,
While not a blade of grass or hay
Appears from Michaelmas to May,
Must let their cattle range in vain
For food along the barren plain:
Meagre and lank with fasting grown,
And nothing left but skin and bone;
Exposed to want, and wind, and weather,
They just keep life and soul together,
Till summer showers and evening`s dew
Again the verdant glebe renew;
And, as the vegetables rise,
The famish`d cow her want supplies;
Without an ounce of last year`s flesh;
Whate`er she gains is young and fresh;
Grows plump and round, and full of mettle,
As rising from Medea`s  kettle.
With youth and beauty to enchant
Europa`s counterfeit gallant.
  Why, Stella, should you knit your brow,
If I compare you to a cow?
`Tis just the case; for you have fasted
So long, till all your flesh is wasted;
And must against the warmer days
Be sent to Quilca down to graze;
Where mirth, and exercise, and air,
Will soon your appetite repair:
The nutriment will from within,
Round all your body, plump your skin;
Will agitate the lazy flood,
And fill your veins with sprightly blood.
Nor flesh nor blood will be the same
Nor aught of Stella but the name:
For what was ever understood,
By human kind, but flesh and blood?
And if your flesh and blood be new,
You`ll be no more the former you;
But for a blooming nymph will pass,
Just fifteen, coming summer`s grass,
Your jetty locks with garlands crown`d:
While all the squires for nine miles round,
Attended by a brace of curs,
With jockey boots and silver spurs,
No less than justices o` quorum,
Their cow-boys bearing cloaks before `em,
Shall leave deciding broken pates,
To kiss your steps at Quilca gates.
But, lest you should my skill disgrace,
Come back before you`re out of case;
For if to Michaelmas you stay,
The new-born flesh will melt away;
The `squires in scorn will fly the house
For better game, and look for grouse;
But here, before the frost can mar it,
We`ll make it firm with beef and claret.
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