Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/A Grecian Fable
A Grecian Fable.
Once on a time, a son and sire, we're told,—
The stripling tender and the father old,—
Purchased a donkey at a country fair,
To ease their limbs, and hawk about their ware;
But as the sluggish animal was weak,
They feared if both should mount, his back would break.
Up got the boy, the father plods on foot,
And through the gazing crowd he leads the brute;
Forth from the crowd the greybeards hobble out, '
And hail the cavalcade with feeble shout:
"This is the respect to feeble age you show?
And this the duty you to parents owe?
He beats the hoof, and you are set astride!
Sirrah! get down, and let your father ride."
As Grecian lads were seldom void of grace,
The decent, duteous youth resigned his place.
Then a fresh murmur through the rabble ran;
Boys, girls, wives, widows, all attack the man:
"Sure ne'er was brute so void of nature!
Have you no pity for the pretty creature?
To your young child can you be so unkind?
Here, Luke, Bill, Betty, put the child behind!"
Old dapple next the clowns' compassion claimed:
"'Tis strange those boobies are not quite ashamed!
Two at a time upon a poor dumb beast!
They might as well have carried him at least."
The pair, still pliant to the partial voice,
Dismount and bear the brute. Then what a noise!
Huzzas, loud laughs, low gibe, and bitter joke,
From the yet silent sire these words provoke:
"Proceed, my boy, nor heed their further call;
Vain his attempt who tries to please them all!"
The stripling tender and the father old,—
Purchased a donkey at a country fair,
To ease their limbs, and hawk about their ware;
But as the sluggish animal was weak,
They feared if both should mount, his back would break.
Up got the boy, the father plods on foot,
And through the gazing crowd he leads the brute;
Forth from the crowd the greybeards hobble out, '
And hail the cavalcade with feeble shout:
"This is the respect to feeble age you show?
And this the duty you to parents owe?
He beats the hoof, and you are set astride!
Sirrah! get down, and let your father ride."
As Grecian lads were seldom void of grace,
The decent, duteous youth resigned his place.
Then a fresh murmur through the rabble ran;
Boys, girls, wives, widows, all attack the man:
"Sure ne'er was brute so void of nature!
Have you no pity for the pretty creature?
To your young child can you be so unkind?
Here, Luke, Bill, Betty, put the child behind!"
Old dapple next the clowns' compassion claimed:
"'Tis strange those boobies are not quite ashamed!
Two at a time upon a poor dumb beast!
They might as well have carried him at least."
The pair, still pliant to the partial voice,
Dismount and bear the brute. Then what a noise!
Huzzas, loud laughs, low gibe, and bitter joke,
From the yet silent sire these words provoke:
"Proceed, my boy, nor heed their further call;
Vain his attempt who tries to please them all!"