Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Military Technology, Hunting, Industry, War, Politics, Nationalism

    Begins by reflecting on the cheap ways in which domestic and agricultural 'vermin' are slain and removed from 'house and barn', and 'field and wood', but laments the 'cost must needs be lost, / How many brave men too, / Would we keep down the Austrian lown [calmness], / Or the Prussian thief subdue!'. Concludes by reiterating the high costs of destroying 'Ill beasts in human shape' and is resigned to the fact that the only way to 'bate the foreign pest' is to 'Forge better than their best'.