University of Virginia Library

QUATRAINS.

THE PHŒNIX.

When Adam ate of that forbidden food,
Sole bird that shared not in his sin was I;
And so my life is evermore renewed,
And I among the dying never die.

THE PELICAN.

I am the bird that from my bleeding breast
Draw the dear stream that nourishes my brood,
And feebly unto men his love attest,
True pelican, that feeds them with his blood.

THE HALCYON.

For twice seven days, in winter's middle rage,
The winds are hushed, the billows are at rest;
Heaven all for me their fury doth assuage,
While I am brooding o'er my fluctuant nest.

THE COCK.

What time an ass with horrid bray you hear,
Believe he sees a wicked sprite at hand;
But when I make my carol loud and clear,
Know that an angel doth before me stand.

THE PEACOCK.

I, glorying in my tail's extended pride,
See my foul legs, and then I shriek outright;
So shrieks a human soul, that has descried
Its baseness 'mid vainglorious self-delight.

THE EAGLE.

I no degenerate progeny will raise,
But try my callow offspring, which will look
In the sun's eye with peremptory gaze,
Nor other nurslings in my nest will brook.

THE ERMINE.

To miry places me the hunters drive,
Where I my robes of purest white must stain;
Then yield I, nor for life will longer strive,
For spotless death ere spotted life is gain.

THE BEES.

We light on fruits and flowers and purest things;
For if on carcases or ought unclean,
When homeward we returned, with mortal stings
Would slay us the keen watchers round our queen.

THE DIAMOND.

I only polished am in mine own dust,
Nought else against my hardness will prevail:
And thou, O man, in thine own sufferings must
Be polished: every meaner art will fail.

THE COCK.

I, clapping on my sides my wings with might,
First to myself the busy morn proclaim:
Who others doth to tasks and toil incite
Should first himself have roused unto the same.

THE NIGHTINGALE.

Leaning my bosom on a pointed thorn,
I bleed, and bleeding sing my sweetest strain;
For sweetest songs of saddest hearts are born,
And who may here dissever love and pain?

THE SNAKE.

Myself I force some narrowest passage through,
Leaving my old and wrinkled skin behind,
And issuing forth in splendour of my new:
Hard entrance into life all creatures find.

THE TIGER.

Hearing sweet music, as in fell despight,
Himself the tiger doth in pieces tear:
The melody of other men's delight
There are, alas! who can as little bear.

FALLING STARS.

Angels are we, that once from heaven exiled,
Would climb its crystal battlements again;
But have their keen-eyed watchers not beguiled,
Hurled by their glittering lances back amain.