1821.*
-----
The fox and crane.

Once two persons uninvited

Came to join my dinner table;
For the nonce they lived united,

Fox and crane yclept in fable.

Civil greetings pass’d between us

Then I pluck’d some pigeons tender
For the fox of jackal-genius,

Adding grapes in full-grown splendour.

Long-neck’d flasks I put as dishes

For the crane, without delaying,
Fill’d with gold and silver fishes,

In the limpid water playing.

Had ye witness’d Reynard planted

At his flat plate, all demurely,
Ye with envy must have granted: 

“Ne’er was such a gourmand, surely!”

While the bird with circumspection

On one foot, as usual, cradled,
From the flasks his fish-refection

With his bill and long neck ladled.

One the pigeons praised,—­the other,

As they went, extoll’d the fishes,
Each one scoffing at his brother

For preferring vulgar dishes.

* * *

If thou wouldst preserve thy credit,

When thou askest folks to guzzle
At thy hoard, take care to spread it

Suited both for bill and muzzle.

1819.
-----
The fox and huntsman.

Hard ’tis on a fox’s traces

To arrive, midst forest-glades;
Hopeless utterly the chase is,

If his flight the huntsman aids.

And so ’tis with many a wonder,

(Why A B make Ab in fact,)
Over which we gape and blunder,

And our head and brains distract.

1821.*
-----
The frogs.

A pool was once congeal’d with frost;
The frogs, in its deep waters lost,

No longer dared to croak or spring;
But promised, being half asleep,
If suffer’d to the air to creep,

As very nightingales to sing.

A thaw dissolved the ice so strong,—­
They proudly steer’d themselves along,
When landed, squatted on the shore,
And croak’d as loudly as before.

1821.*
-----
The wedding.

A feast was in a village spread,—­
It was a wedding-day, they said. 
The parlour of the inn I found,
And saw the couples whirling round,
Each lass attended by her lad,
And all seem’d loving, blithe, and glad;
But on my asking for the bride,
A fellow with a stare, replied: 
“’Tis not the place that point to raise!

We’re only dancing in her honour;
We now have danced three nights and days,

And not bestowed one thought upon her.”

* * * *

Whoe’er in life employs his eyes
Such cases oft will recognise.

1821.*
-----
Burial.

To the grave one day from a house they bore

A maiden;
To the window the citizens went to explore;
In splendour they lived, and with wealth as of yore