Aesop, in Rhyme, Aesop [book club recommendations .TXT] 📗
- Author: Aesop
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To keep the prey from pussy's eyes.
So on a certain shelf so high,
To reach which puss in vain might try,
There all the mice together got,
And they resolved to leave it not.
So pussy found that to eat them,
She must resort to stratagem.
And holding fast by means of pegs,
She hung suspended by the legs.
And downward she then hung her head,
And looked as though she were quite dead—
And thus she sought to cheat the mice,
And from their dwellings them entice.
A cunning mouse, well "up to trap,"
On pussy her two eyes did clap.
"Aha!" she cried, "puss are you there?
Within your reach, I would not dare—
Not e'en though it were proved by law,
That your whole skin were stuffed with straw."
A fox while walking out one day,
Into a toy shop chanced to stray;
Among the toys that stood arrayed,
A vizor mask was there displayed,
With rosy cheeks, complexion fair,
And ruby lips and auburn hair,
And eyes of blue, and Grecian nose;
And many beauties to disclose,
It seemed made. The fox, with sighs,
Gazed on. "Ah, ah!" he cries,
"Look at this head it naught contains,
It has rare beauty, but no brains."
MORAL.The accomplished beau, in air and mien how blest.
His hat well fashioned, and his hair well dress'd—
But still undress'd within: to give him brains
Exceeds his hatter's or his barber's pains.
A man once had a goose I'm told,
Which had laid each day an egg of gold.
Now if this treasure were well spent,
It might make any one content.
But no! this man desired more;
And though of eggs he had rich store;
He thought one day the goose he'd kill,
And then at once his pockets fill.
So chasing goosey round and round,
She soon was caught and firmly bound
He opened her from neck to tail
And then his folly did bewail.
For not a single egg was there,
And thus he lost this treasure rare.
A fox once took it in his pate,
To go beyond a garden gate,
To see if there grew on the trees,
Some food his hunger to appease.
So in he went and there he spied
Some grapes. To reach them hard he tried.
Now they were large and luscious too,
Quite purple, and beautiful to view.
So up he jumps with many a bound,
Until exhausted to the ground,
He falls. The grapes hang o'er his head,
In clusters large, "Well! well!" he said,
"You are but green, and hard as stone,
And all my time away is thrown.
I'll leave you to your solitude,
You are not fit to make me food."
A very thin and hungry mouse,
Into a granary stole,
Where stood a basket full of grain,
In which was a small hole.
After much squeezing he got in,
And there he ate his fill;
But when he tried to issue out,
The hole seemed smaller still.
A weasel who stood looking on,
Cried out in sneering tone,
"You can't come out, my little dear,
Until you've smaller grown.
"You were half-starved when you crept in,
And now you are quite stout;
So cease to eat until you can,
As you got in, get out."
In a retired spot,
A miser had got
A very large treasure in store.
And it was his delight,
Each morn and each night,
To count it and add to it more.
He had made the hole deep,
And he thought none would peep,
To find out his secret retreat.
But a servant so sly,
His master did spy,
And thought that his cunning he'd beat.
So one dark winter night,
He took out his light,
And to the field hastened away;
And he laughed in his sleeve,
To think how 'twould grieve
His master to miss it next day.
And indeed the distress
Of his lord you may guess,
For words can't describe it, I'm sure.
He tore out his hair,
Clasp'd his hands in despair
And cried he was ruined and poor.
A man passing by,
His grief chanced to spy;
And told him, "'tis useless to mourn.
You can look at the hole,
To solace your soul,
Although all the money is gone."
Thus Esop has the folly shown,
To build on merits not your own.
A jackdaw, empty, pert and vain,
Who held his equals in disdain,
One day some beauteous feathers found,
Left by a peacock on the ground.
When in the gaudy plumage dress'd,
The shallow thing his fortune bless'd;
With stately gesture strode along,
And boldly join'd the peacock throng;
Who, his impertinence to pay,
First stripp'd him, and then chas'd away.
The crest-fall'n coxcomb homeward sneaks,
And his forsaken comrades seeks;
Where'er he comes, with scorn they leave him,
And not a jackdaw will receive him.
Says one he had disdain'd, at last,
"Such as thou art, thou mightst have pass'd,
And hadst not now been cast behind,
The scorn and scandal of thy kind."
Who dares another's ills deride,
Had best against his own provide.
An eagle pouncing on a hare,
With piercing cries puss rends the air;
When a pert sparrow from a tree,
Insulted thus her misery:
"Ho, ho! poor puss, thy boasted speed
Has failed thee, then, in time of need!"
Scarce had she spoke, when, like an arrow,
A vulture darted on the sparrow.
Ere the poor hare resign'd her breath,
"This sight," she cried, "consoles in death
—That thou, who hast my woes derided,
My last of miseries hast divided!"
Vain boasters credit may surprise,
Till known; who knows them will despise.
A lion once a hunting took
An ass, and hid him in a nook.
To drive the forest made him bray,
That he might seize the passing prey.
Long-ears set up such horrid cries,
That every creature trembling flies;
The lion, practised in his trade,
Had soon abundant carnage made;
Satiate with spoil, the ass he calls,
And bid him cease his hideous brawls.
The king he found with slaughter weary,
Surrounded by his noble quarry,
And, puffed with self-importance, said:
"Sir, to some purpose I have bray'd!"
"No ass more famously could do,"
The lion says, "but thee I knew,
Or I might have been frightened too."
That good from bad men rarely know,
This apologue may serve to show:
A stag upon a fountain's side,
Beheld his branching horns with pride;
While of his spindle-shanks asham'd,
Their disproportioned form he blam'd.
Sudden he hears the hunter's cries,
And to the forest nimbly flies.
The woods receive their well-known guest.
His tangled horns, his feet arrest;
The hounds approach, and seize their prey;
Who, dying, thus was heard to say:
"Wretch that I am! too late I learn,
How little we the truth discern!
What would have saved me, I despis'd,
And what has been my ruin, priz'd!"
Her nest on high an eagle made
Lower a cat her kittens laid;
And at the bottom of the tree
A sow dispos'd her progeny.
Vile puss to gain her wicked ends,
Much love for both of them pretends.
First to the eagle's aerie mounts,
And thus to her false alarms recounts:
"Madam, in truth our dangerous state,
'Tis with reluctance I relate;
But things are really gone so far,
Conceal them I no longer dare.
Night after night the treacherous sow
Our tree has undermined below;
Ere long it cannot choose but fall,
And then she hopes to eat us all."
Successful when she saw her lies,
Down to the bristly sow she hies;
"My worthy neighbor!" crying out,
"I pray you, mind what you're about,
For to a certainty I know,
The eagle waits but till you go,
(The thing with great concern I say,)
To make your little ones her prey."
Suspicious dread when thus inspir'd,
Puss to her hole all day retir'd;
Stealing at night on silent paw,
To stuff her own and kittens' maw.
To stir nor sow nor eagle dare.
What more? fell hunger ends their care;
And long the mischief-making beast
With her base brood on carrion feast.
Learn hence, ye simples, ere too late,
What ills the double-tongued create.
Who in their foe united find
Force, art, and a remorseless mind,
Whate'er their strength and prowess be,
To perish stand in jeopardy.
An eagle once a tortoise held,
Safe in his horny house concealed,
Which he in vain essayed to break
With all the fury of his beak.
As with his prey he wing'd the air,
A wily raven ventur'd near:
"Your prize is excellent," says she,
"And if you'll give a share to me,
I know, for all his iron hide,
How we the dainty may divide."
The bargain made, "On yonder wall,
Down," says the raven, "let him fall."
He listen'd to the hoary sinner;
And they on turtle made their dinner.
Thus fraud and force their purpose gain,
And nature fortifies in vain.
A fly upon a coach-box seated,
With arrogance the horses rated.
"Advance!" cries out the paltry thing,
"Unless you mean to feel my sting."
"Not thee we heed," a horse replied,
"But him whose skilful hand can guide
The rein and whip. We better know
Than thee when we should stop or go."
Thus men without or sense or weight,
Think themselves born to rule the state.
When an Athenian Esop saw,
Playing with school-boys once at taw,
The man with laughter shook his sides;
Esop the laughter thus derides:
"Of this slack bow before you laid,
The meaning, sprightly sir," he said,
"Explain!" (A crowd had gather'd round.)
Surpris'd, the man no answer found:
He puzzled long, but all his wit
Could on no explanation hit.
The laugh on Esop's side; says he,
"Why you this bow unbended see,
It is because it needs must break,
If always bent; so we must take
Due relaxation, that the mind
Its vigor may when wanted find."
He who in harmless sport employs
A vacant hour, is not unwise.
To one complaining of his fate,
Esop this fable did relate.
A ship by raging tempests toss'd,
The seamen, giving all for lost,
'Twas who should weep and pray the most.
Grown calm at once the sky and sea,
They shout in joyful extacy.
The pilot, from experience wise,
The giddy crew did thus advise:
"Nor much rejoice, nor over grieve,
But decently what comes receive;
Since good and ill succeed so near,
Meet ill with hope and good with fear."
Not what they hear, but what they see,
Will children and domestics be.
A crab one day her daughter chid;
"You never do as you are bid,
Have I not told you o'er and o'er,
That awkward gait to use no more?
Learn, ninny, once for all to know,
Folks forward and not backward go."
"Mamma," says Miss, "how strange you talk!
Have I not learn'd from you to walk?
Were I to move the other way,
How could I follow you I pray?"
Phebus and Boreas from on high
Upon the road a traveller spy,
Wearing a cloak for fear of rain.
Says Boreas, "his precaution's vain
'Gainst me, I'll show you for a joke
How soon I'll make
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