Fables in Song :: :: University of Virginia Library

And tho', indeed, no Ganymede
The beast was, yet 'tis true
That Jove's own bird on him conferr'd
This god-like point of view.
For, as of old, some bandit bold,
Baulk'd of his promised prey
(The Bishop's self with bags of pelf)
Might grumbling bear away
The Bishop's Fool whose limping mule
Belated lags behind,
So, missing aim at nobler game,
An Eagle chanced to find

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The torpid beast; unfit to feast
His Eaglet brood, but still
A trifling toy which they, for joy
And not for food, might kill.

2.

As in the Eagle's claw
The Tortoise upward sail'd,
His flight a Swallow saw,
And, “O beware!” she wail'd,
“Against thy nature's law
Why hast thou rashly rail'd?
Poor denizen of dust,
Confide not in the fate
Which doth exalt, and must
Destroy, thee soon or late.
Be warn'd in time: mistrust
The contact of the great.”
“Error!” that dupe replied.
“The patron who in me
My latent genius spied
Respects it, tho' it be
By unjust gods denied
What they bestow'd on thee.
Thanks to his recognition,
I lack no longer now
The long-desired condition
Which gives to such as thou

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Their freedom, and position
Above the world. I know
That on the restoration
To me, and to my race,
Of that exalted station
Which we were born to grace,
Depends the whole creation.
Till then all's out of place.”