Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

The following, from the Independent American, is extracted from a satirical poem, shortly to be published. (See advertisement in this day's paper.) Some of our readers are acquainted with Mr. Prentiss's poetical talents, and will perhaps be gratified by this specimen.

Extracts from the Knaviad--Book III

Young Cupid takes a bed-bug's beauteous form,
And on Dunn's breastbones lies secure and warm;
Near his left pap he bites, with tickling smart,
And sends the gentle poison to his heart;
Thro' every limb the soft infection flies,
But sparkles mostly in his adder eyes:
Those eyes that to the table's other end,
Full in the goddess' face their glances send:
Those glances that with kindness she receives;
While lustful appetency interweaves
With all her motions, all her looks & limbs,
As soft she in expected pleasure swims.

Now had they all retired, with shades of night,
Save ANTINERY, and her delight;
By whom full soon 'tis settled to repair
To Jersey's shore, beyond the Delaware:
That neither Gods nor mortals might suspect
Their dear designs, nor those designs detect.

First goes the Goddess, pensive and alone;
In safety seeks and finds the land of Sloan.
Nor long staid Dunn behind: he steals a boat.
And soon is on the wat'ry plain afloat;
And plies the oar with Palinurus' power--
Sudden the clouds portend an awful shower.

Swift blow the winds; the black'ning clouds o'erspread;
Deep are the thunders; dire the flashes red;
High roll the moving hills; the winds contend;
Notus and Boreas in a wrangle blend:
The west wind strives to arbitrate in vain;
While all by turns the short liv'd vict'ry gain.

Faster the lightnings flash: heav'n's cannon roar:
And the floods fall, as in the days of Noah.
The crazy vessel, mindless of the helm,
Quakes at the instant dangers that o'erwhelm:
Sinks in the vale, and rises with the swell,
Talks to the clouds, and then communes with hell.

Dunn to the Devil speeds a hasty prayer--
"Prince of the power that rules the raging air,
Spare, spare thy suppliant, Satan, spare, oh spare!"

Comes unknown voice this cheering sentence gave,
"Thou wast not born to sink beneath the wave;
Thy mind with fears unfounded cease to tor-
tue:
To everlasting fire thou canst come by wa-
ter."

Full in the river's midst an isle there stands,
Where oft the skill is tried of hangman's hands:
The quiv'ring Dunn and crazy vessel there
The warring winds and bois'trous billows bear.

The clouds disperse, and Luna lends her light:
But what a show affronts the hero's sight;
The gallows, many a tenant that had known.
Who pendent there had heaved his latest groan.

Thrice did he smite his breast, and three times sigh'd;
"And must I, must I come to this," he cri-
ed;
Here must I make at last the letter I;
And, this old carcase must the surgeons buy?"

Thus he, while down his cheek salt moisture stole,
And fell foreboding rack'd his tortured soul
High on a towering pine, in land of Sloan,
A lantern's light is by the Goddess shown
This seen by Dunn, as winds and waves sub-
side,
Again he dares attempt the rolling tide.

The lantern's light he makes his polar star;
He leaves the inauspicious isle afar,
Plies with increasing strength the lab'ring oar,
And lands in safety on the Jersey shore:
Sore wounded with young Cupid's force-
ful bite,
The Goddess' veins are swell'd with strong delight.

The hero's vices greatly she admires,
And the long honors of his ancient sires.
Fixt in her breast his looks and words re-
main,
Her ev'ry member feels the pleasing pain.

"How grand his port," she cries, "what looks sublime,
How persevering and how brave in crime.
Such vices speak him of th' infernal breed:
Faith I believe he's one of us indeed.
There's something in thee, what I do not know,
There's something in thee, that delights me SO,
Withstand thy wishes I no longer can;
Yield, yield I must, thou thrice charm-
ing man
Pardon the poor offender of thy laws:
For, wert thou here, thou wouldst not be a
nun;
But by this dear deceiver be undone.
I came a flower uncropt; alas for me,
I shall return, by love's severe decree,
Not what I am, but what I soon must be."

Dunn paused astonished; gazed with snakey eyes,
Burnt with infernal black; and thus replies.
"Oh rapture yielding fair one, dost thou now
In sober seriousness the truth avow?
'Was ne'er thy utmost power of pleasing won
By that gay genteel shepherd Jefferson?
But love forbids suspicion's base alarms--
I faint--I fall--I melt into thy arms."

The glad ground knows, and from her bo-
som pours,
The sweetest herbs and aromatic showers;
Night shade and nettles a soft carpet spread,
And clustering burs and pigweed swell the bed-
Infernal smoke ascending through the ground
Perfumes the spot with scent sulphurous round;
Dunn on her arm reclines his haggard head;
The Goddess slumbers on her joyous bed.

NOTE.
Here must I make at last the letter I?
Facere longam literam, to make the long letter, was a common expression among the Romans, for hanging