Remember Thee - Sách nói Miễn phí

THE "LIVING DOG" AND "THE DEAD LION."

1828.

Next week will be published (as "Lives" are the rage)
  The whole Reminiscences, wondrous and strange,
Of a small puppy-dog that lived once in the cage
  Of the late noble Lion at Exeter 'Change.

Tho' the dog is a dog of the kind they call "sad,"
  'Tis a puppy that much to good breeding pretends;
And few dogs have such opportunities had
  Of knowing how Lions behave—among friends;

How that animal eats, how he snores, how he drinks,
  Is all noted down by this Boswell so small;
And 'tis plain from each sentence, the puppy-dog thinks
  That the Lion was no such great things after all.

Tho' he roared pretty well—this the puppy allows—
  It was all, he says, borrowed—all second-hand roar;
And he vastly prefers his own little bow-wows
  To the loftiest war-note the Lion could pour.

'Tis indeed as good fun as a Cynic could ask,
  To see how this cockney-bred setter of rabbits
Takes gravely the Lord of the Forest to task,
  And judges of lions by puppy-dog habits.

Nay, fed as he was (and this makes it a dark case)
  With sops every day from the Lion's own pan,
He lifts up his leg at the noble beast's carcass.
  And does all a dog so diminutive can.

However, the book's a good book, being rich in
  Examples and warnings to lions high-bred,
How they suffer small mongrelly curs in their kitchen,
  Who'll feed on them living and foul them when dead.

T. PIDCOCK

Exeter 'Change,