Classic Poem

Ah , ha, I know you now at last!
I've traced you thro' the ghostly past!
Down from the far Azoic Age
I know your each succeeding stage!
I mind you well! When I was stone
You could not then leave me alone,
For you were fungus—choked my breath
With your putrescent, mouldy death!
When I a megatherium—
The last surviving—had become,
You were the scale upon my eyes,
You were the itch upon my thighs!
And then when I was pachyderm
And ruminant, each in their turn,
You were the poison in the mud—
The bitter herb that spoiled the cud!
I was a monkey, then a man;
You first a louse, then saurian.
I know! 'Tis scarce a thousand years
Since you, a crocodile in tears,
Swam up the Ganges, ate my child,
And with your slime the stream defiled!
And then when I in Lisbon town
Incurred the Inquisition's frown,
You were the fiend in red and black
Who pressed the levers of the rack!
I died for liberty; you were
The tyrant's executioner!
Your presence then became a joy—
You lost your power to annoy!
You saw my smile and your mistake,
And quickly did that sphere forsake.
Since then you haven't been a man;
To retrograde you then began,
And now, tho' still with me you stay,
You're that to-morrow, this to-day.
The cur that howls the whole night through,
The fever lurking in the dew,
The sand-fly on my blood intent,
The sly mosquito, pestilent!
The ant that o'er the sugar crawls,
The spider on my head that falls!
You've found your office once again—
Your sharpest tool is petty pain!
Your greater efforts lose their wings—
You're potent but in little things!
Ah, yes, I know you thoroughly!
You'll cling to me eternally:
And reincarnate though I be
Thro' century on century,
You'll dog my footsteps night and day
Till sense and matter pass away!
To happiness superlative
You are the prefix negative!
The qualification Evil sent—
Your name is dis and mine content!