Truth in Fiction Or, Morality in Masquerade. A Collection of Two hundred twenty five Select Fables of Aesop, and other Authors. Done into English Verse. By Edmund Arwaker |
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| LV. | FABLE LV. The Swan and Stork:
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 | Truth in Fiction |  |
272
FABLE LV. The Swan and Stork:
Or, Deliverance in Death.
A dying
Swan, that with her fleeting Breath,
In tuneful Accents, seem'd to welcome Death;
Was, by a Stork, that heard her Song, admir'd,
When in such joyful Transports she expir'd:
That she, who ne'er before unlock'd her Throat,
To please her self with any charming Note;
Shou'd at grim Death's Approach, which others fear,
So gay, so chearful, so serene appear.
In tuneful Accents, seem'd to welcome Death;
Was, by a Stork, that heard her Song, admir'd,
When in such joyful Transports she expir'd:
That she, who ne'er before unlock'd her Throat,
To please her self with any charming Note;
Shou'd at grim Death's Approach, which others fear,
So gay, so chearful, so serene appear.
The Swan reply'd, I well may raise my Voice,
And at the kind Relief of Fate rejoyce;
Since I for Food shall take no longer Care,
No longer dread the Fowler's Gun or Snare.
And at the kind Relief of Fate rejoyce;
Since I for Food shall take no longer Care,
No longer dread the Fowler's Gun or Snare.
The MORAL.
‘Why shou'd frail Men, at Death's Approach, be shock'd,‘By whose kind Hand their Prisons are unlock'd?
‘Since, free'd from Troubles which their Lives enslave,
‘They lie at Rest within the peaceful Grave?
‘Embolden'd by their Liberty so near,
‘They need no Tyrant's Frown, nor Fortune's fear.
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‘All other Foes, and their short Rage, defies.
| Truth in Fiction | |