Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/295

265 THE BIRDS 265

He soon, in the murky Tartarean recesses, With a hurricane's might, in his fiery caresses 40

Impregnated Chaos ; and hastily snatched To being and life, begotten and hatched, The primitive Birds : but the Deities all, The celestial Lights, the terrestrial Ball, Were later of birth, with the dwellers on earth, « More tamely combined, of a temperate kind ; When chaotical mixture approached to a fixture.

Our antiquity proved, it remains to be shown. That Love is our author, and master alone ; Like him, we can ramble, and gambol and fly so

O'er ocean and earth, and aloft to the sky : And all the world over we 're friends to the lover. And when other means fail, we are found to pre- vail. When a peacock or pheasant is sent as a present.

All lessons of primary daily concern, 55

You have learnt from the Birds, and continue to

learn. Your best benefactors and early instructors ; We gi'e you the warning of seasons returning.

When the cranes are arranged, and muster afloat In the middle air, with a creaking note, m

Steering away to the Lybian ^ sands ; Then careful farmers sow their lands ; The crazy vessel is hauled ashore. The sail, the ropes, the rudder and oar Are all unshipj^ed, and housed in store. es

The shepherd is warned, by the kite reappearing, To muster his flock, and be ready for shearing.

You quit your old cloak, at the swallow's behest. In assurance of summer, and purchase a vest. 1 The cranes went to Africa to spend the winter.