The boy screamed.—­“Thou must now stronger pinions supply,
Or else ’twill be ugly, unable to fly.”—­
Soon ’twas stripp’d—­oh, the villain!—­and torn all to pieces. 
The boy was heart-broken,—­and so my tale ceases.

* * * *

He who sees in the boy shadow’d forth his own case,
Should be on his guard ’gainst the fox’s whole race.

1776.*
-----
The wrangler.

One day a shameless and impudent wight
Went into a shop full of steel wares bright,
Arranged with art upon ev’ry shelf. 
He fancied they were all meant for himself;
And so, while the patient owner stood by,
The shining goods needs must handle and try,
And valued,—­for how should a fool better know?—­
The bad things high, and the good ones low,
And all with an easy self-satisfied face;
Then, having bought nothing, he left the place.

The tradesman now felt sorely vex’d,
So when the fellow went there next,
A lock of steel made quite red hot. 
The other cried upon the spot: 
“Such wares as these, who’d ever buy?
the steel is tarnish’d shamefully,”—­
Then pull’d it, like a fool about,
But soon set up a piteous shout. 
“Pray what’s the matter?” the shopman spoke;
The other scream’d:  “Faith, a very cool joke!”

1815.*
-----
The Yelpers.

Our rides in all directions bend,

For business or for pleasure,
Yet yelpings on our steps attend,

And barkings without measure. 
The dog that in our stable dwells,

After our heels is striding,
And all the while his noisy yells

But show that we are riding.

1815.*
-----
The stork’s vocation.

The stork who worms and frogs devours

That in our ponds reside,
Why should he dwell on high church-towers,

With which he’s not allied?

Incessantly he chatters there,

And gives our ears no rest;
But neither old nor young can dare

To drive him from his nest.

I humbly ask it,—­how can he

Give of his title proof,
Save by his happy tendency

To soil the church’s roof?
-----
Celebrity.

[A satire on his own Sorrows of Werther.]

On bridges small and bridges great
Stands Nepomucks in ev’ry state,
Of bronze, wood, painted, or of stone,
Some small as dolls, some giants grown;
Each passer must worship before Nepomuck,
Who to die on a bridge chanced to have the ill luck,
When once a man with head and ears
A saint in people’s eyes appears,
Or has been sentenced piteously
Beneath the hangman’s hand to die,
He’s as a noted person prized,
In portrait is immortalized. 
Engravings, woodcuts, are supplied,
And through the world spread far and wide. 
Upon them all is seen his name,