Book V, Stanzas 1-4 Summary

Stanza 1: The narrator urges the reader to approach his poems with an open mind and, even if it is difficult to do so, accept the truths which are contained within them. He claims to be exploring areas of knowledge which previous thinkers have been too bashful to consider and, as such, he fears that his reader will be frightened off.

Stanza 2: The narrator watches as a beetle rolls balls of what appears to be dung to the foot of a mound, on top of which is a chimerical composition of a man and a pelican. Meanwhile, a vulture and an owl battle one another in the sky. When the beetle finally gets his ball to the mound, the man-pelican rebukes him and says that he has had enough revenge on the woman—apparently the beetle's balls...