Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Prognostication, Superstition, Astrology, Charlatanry, Death, Eschatology

    Addressed to the divine and writer on biblical prophecy, John Cumming, this article describes some of the effects of the 'prognostication' of the comet. For example, notes how it will 'spread consternation, / And with prostration, / Old women swoon', how astrologers will declare that the comet 'will blow us into air, / Fouling this planet', that it will end the world 'so very soon', and that it will lead to ice which will be a 'boon [...] When the flies are humming on a sultry afternoon'.