RESTRAIN your child; you'll soon believe The text, which says, we sprung from Eve. As an old Hen led forth her train, And seem'd to peck to show the grain; She rak'd the chaff, she scratch'd the ground, And glean'd the spacious yard around. A giddy chick, to try her wings, On the well's narrow margin springs, And prone she drops. The mother's breast All day with sorrow was possest. A Cock she met; her son she knew; And in her heart affection grew. My son, says she, I grant your years Have reach'd beyond a mother's cares; I see you vig'rous, strong and bold, I hear with joy your triumphs told; 'Tis not from cocks thy fate I dread: But let thy ever-wary tread Avoid yon well; that fatal place Is sure perdition to our race. Print this my counsel on thy breast; To the just Gods I leave the rest. He thank'd her care; yet day by day His bosom burn'd to disobey, And ev'ry time the well he saw Scorn'd in his heart the foolish law; Near and more near each day he drew, And long'd to try the dang'rous view. Why was this idle charge? he crys: Let courage female fears despise. Or did she doubt my heart was brave, And therefore this injunction gave? Or does her harvest store the place, A treasure for her younger race? And would she thus my search prevent? I stand resolv'd, and dare th' event. Thus said. He mounts the margin's round, And prys into the depth profound. He stretch'd his neck; and from below With stretching neck advanc'd a foe; With wrath his ruffled plumes he rears, The foe with ruffled plumes appears; Threat answer'd threat, his fury grew, Headlong to meet the war he flew; But when the watry death he found, He thus lamented, as he drown'd. I ne'er had been in this condition But for my mother's prohibition. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MOUSE'S LULLABY by PALMER COX COMPLAINT OF THE ABSENCE OF HER LOVER BEING UPON THE SEA by HENRY HOWARD ARIEL'S SONG (1) [OR, DIRGE] [OR, A SEA DIRGE]. FR. THE TEMPEST by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AMORETTI: 70 by EDMUND SPENSER UNSEASONABLE SNOWS by ALFRED AUSTIN FLOATING HEARTS by GEORGE BRADFORD BARTLETT IN MEMORY OF AGOSTINO ISOLA, OF CAMBRIDGE, WHO DIED 1797 by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS |