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 | The harp and plow |  |
All on a sudden, as we say,
Just along shore a little way,
Reclined upon the sloping bank,
Appeared a figure, long and lank.
He held a rod of extra length,
Made less for beauty than for strength;
It had a gallows look about it;
(You should have seen it if you doubt it.)
His line was such another cord
As he used who betrayed his Lord,
And such as hangmen now-days use
To knot the ignominious noose.
His hook, e'en in the gloom of night,
Shone with peculiar auric light;
No hollow tinsel of the tinner,
But SOLID GOLD, as I'm a sinner!
For baits he used as many kinds
As were his fish of different minds;
(Not that small fry have minds, but then
What may he use who catches men?)
Beside him stood a basket large
And black as hold of charcoal barge,
And thro' its sooty meshes steamed
Sulphureous fumes that lurid gleamed!
Just along shore a little way,
Reclined upon the sloping bank,
Appeared a figure, long and lank.
He held a rod of extra length,
Made less for beauty than for strength;
123
(You should have seen it if you doubt it.)
His line was such another cord
As he used who betrayed his Lord,
And such as hangmen now-days use
To knot the ignominious noose.
His hook, e'en in the gloom of night,
Shone with peculiar auric light;
No hollow tinsel of the tinner,
But SOLID GOLD, as I'm a sinner!
For baits he used as many kinds
As were his fish of different minds;
(Not that small fry have minds, but then
What may he use who catches men?)
Beside him stood a basket large
And black as hold of charcoal barge,
And thro' its sooty meshes steamed
Sulphureous fumes that lurid gleamed!
| The harp and plow | |