The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 8/On Stephen Duck
ON STEPHEN DUCK,
THE THRESHER AND FAVOURITE POET.
A QUIBBLING EPIGRAM. 1730.
THE thresher Duck could o'er the queen prevail,
The proverb says, "no fence against a flail."
From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains;
For which her majesty allows him grains:
Though 'tis confest, that those, who ever saw
His poems, think them all not worth a straw!
Thrice happy Duck, employed in threshing stubble!
Thy toil is lessen'd, and thy profits double.