Fables in Song By Robert Lord Lytton |
 | I. |
 | I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
| XXIII. |
| XXIV. |
| XXV. |
| XXVI. |
| XXVII. |
| XXVIII. |
| II. |
 | Fables in Song |  |
Sadly the downfall of that small aspirant
The Eagle saw. Long while his softening eye
Watch'd the frail image with its sightless tyrant
Struggling in vain. “Thy spirit,” he sigh'd, “was high.
Ah wherefore, little one, so weak thy strength?
Yon Mole” (and, while he spake, the unconscious Mole
Was snoring, comfortably stretch'd at length
In sleep—his only guerdon at the goal)
“Yon Mole was stronger. Feeble wings, blind eyes,
Pedant and sentimentalist, have done
Their best to share the Poet's ecstasies,
And, at their best, they both have fail'd. The one
Snores on the height. O'erwhelm'd the other lies.
What may he trust?”
The Eagle saw. Long while his softening eye
Watch'd the frail image with its sightless tyrant
Struggling in vain. “Thy spirit,” he sigh'd, “was high.
Ah wherefore, little one, so weak thy strength?
Yon Mole” (and, while he spake, the unconscious Mole
Was snoring, comfortably stretch'd at length
In sleep—his only guerdon at the goal)
“Yon Mole was stronger. Feeble wings, blind eyes,
Pedant and sentimentalist, have done
Their best to share the Poet's ecstasies,
And, at their best, they both have fail'd. The one
Snores on the height. O'erwhelm'd the other lies.
What may he trust?”
MORAL.
His strength to be alone.
| Fables in Song | |