A Petition
TO A MEDICAL GENTLEMAN.
Would, Sir, that I could win your ear,
A favour is petition’d here,
Though much you have already done,
Yet bear with one request from me:
Your patient, now, I fain would be,
If granted so desir’d a boon;
A plan might be devis’d that would
Be blest, who knows, to do me good.
And, O! it were a happy thing!
’Twould greatly better my condition,
Spread your fame as a physician,
Double pleasure thence would spring.
Not that I mean your skill’s denied,
If so, I had not first applied,
Much less my pleading now renew;
But curing such a stubborn case,
Your usefulness would much increase,
Tho’ fame should weigh but light with you.
One kind to me before, now gone,
Did all that long could have been done;
This lameness to prevent, and cure,
But then my wavering constitution,
More than now, was in confusion,
And resisted med’cine’s power.
One time I had a minute’s talk,
With you ’bout helping me to walk,
But you declin’d so hard a task,
And I was then, as at this day,
So troublesome another way,
I wanted courage more to ask.
But measur’d lines possess a power,
At least I’ve known it so before,
They’ve gain’d a cause which else had fail’d,
When told in truth’s persuasive spirit,
Meaning well, though poor in merit;
Ev’n such verses have prevail’d;
Please, Sir, let such prevail with you,
And try what art and means can do,
To make me walk though lame and slow:
I think you nothing can propose,
As process, regimen, or dose,
But I will patient undergo:
And after all if means are vain,
I will not murmur, or complain,
When both have done the best we may;
Do promise, once to make a trial,
Nor kill weak hope with a denial,
And your petitioner will pray.