The Lion Beaten by the Man

A field in common share A partridge and a hare, And live in peaceful state, Till, woeful to relate! The hunters’ mingled cry Compels the hare to fly. He hurries to his fort, And spoils almost the sport By faulting every hound That yelps upon the ground. At last his reeking heat Betrays his snug…

The pleasures of a poultry yard Were by a swan and gosling shared. The swan was kept there for his looks, The thrifty gosling for the cooks; The first the garden’s pride, the latter A greater favourite on the platter. They swam the ditches, side by side, And oft in sports aquatic vied, Plunging, splashing…

The sorest ill that Heaven hath Sent on this lower world in wrath,— The plague (to call it by its name,) One single day of which Would Pluto’s ferryman enrich,— Waged war on beasts, both wild and tame. They died not all, but all were sick: No hunting now, by force or trick, To save…

A poor wood-chopper, with his stick load, Whom weight of years, as well as load, oppress’d, Sore groaning in his smoky hut to rest, Trudged wearily along his homeward road. At last his wood upon the ground he throws, And sits him down to think o’er all his woes. To joy a stranger, since his…

Two parts the serpent has— Of men the enemies— The head and tail: the same Have won a mighty fame, Next to the cruel Fates;— So that, indeed, hence They once had great debates About precedence. The first had always gone ahead; The tail had been for ever led; And now to Heaven it pray’d,…

The farmer’s patient care and toil Are oftener wanting than the soil. A wealthy ploughman drawing near his end, Call’d in his sons apart from every friend, And said, “When of your sire bereft, The heritage our fathers left Guard well, nor sell a single field. A treasure in it is conceal’d: The place, precisely,…