I can find an attribution to that most prolific of authors, A. Nonymous. Anyone got the scoop? My lab report begs for flair.
According to this library catalogue entry it may be from a song, “The microbes in a kiss” with music by Ludwig Englander and words by George V. Hobart, from the musical production “Sally in our alley”. So the answer may be George V. Hobart.
I’ve got Dorothy Parker in my mind, in re this poem. Threw away the book, so I can’t say for sure.
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Sometime in 1894, there was a scientific paper put out about microbes and kissing. (microbes were a big topic that year, what with communicable diseases still flourishing).
Some wag, in or around Jan. 1895 put out the verse, but I can find it in a few different forms. The actual series of poems in newspapers started much earlier in 1894.
Here are two from Jan of 1895
Beware the microbes in a kiss,
Cold hearted science cries,
Alas! Where ignorance is bliss,
What folly to be wise!
Microbes in the kiss you say?
Right you are, my boy.
Little germs of purest bliss,
Bacilli of joy!
Ooh, I like those even better, samclem! “Bacilli of joy!”, indeed! They are anonymously written, I suppose? I can still use that, I just need to figure out how to cite it. Any tips?
It’s for a lab report in Microbiology, not an English paper, but the teacher is…uh…enthusiatic about Writing Across the Curriculum and wants the lab report all professional and shiny looking, with abstracts and works referenced and measured margins and stuff. She’ll allow a little creativity, like a bit of doggerel in the Introduction, but I better cite it or she’ll have my head.