FROGS AND MICE.
57
Loud roar'd the pealing thunder, at the shock
Olympus reel'd, and bow'd his marble rock.
Forth flew the levin, Jove's appalling brand,
Flame-wing'd and eddying from his red right hand.
Fear walk'd the world, along each serried rank
All hearts throbb'd wildly, and each check grew blank.
Still nought the Mice recoil'd, but hardier yet
On the doom'd Frogs with gather'd wrath had set,
When Jove, in pity for their lost estate,
Sent a strange plague, that snatch'd them from their fate.
They came, unseen, their backs like anvils strong,
Curv'd, crook'd, and tortuous, sidled they along:
Hook'd were their beaks, their mouths stout pincers plied:
Bony their flesh, and wrought of shells their hide;
From their broad shoulders shot wild flashes out,
Bandied their shanks, their paws steel-nerved and stout:
Eyed in their breasts, upon eight feet they crawl,—
Twain were their heads, and handless were they all;
By men hight "crabs:"—they charged, and in a trice
Tweak'd by their tails their hands and feet the Mice;
Down went each ported spear, in withering dread
The pale Mice halted, trembled, turn'd, and fled17!
Ay! the Mice fled—and at the set of sun
'Twas silence all,—their one day war was done18.
Olympus reel'd, and bow'd his marble rock.
Forth flew the levin, Jove's appalling brand,
Flame-wing'd and eddying from his red right hand.
Fear walk'd the world, along each serried rank
All hearts throbb'd wildly, and each check grew blank.
Still nought the Mice recoil'd, but hardier yet
On the doom'd Frogs with gather'd wrath had set,
When Jove, in pity for their lost estate,
Sent a strange plague, that snatch'd them from their fate.
They came, unseen, their backs like anvils strong,
Curv'd, crook'd, and tortuous, sidled they along:
Hook'd were their beaks, their mouths stout pincers plied:
Bony their flesh, and wrought of shells their hide;
From their broad shoulders shot wild flashes out,
Bandied their shanks, their paws steel-nerved and stout:
Eyed in their breasts, upon eight feet they crawl,—
Twain were their heads, and handless were they all;
By men hight "crabs:"—they charged, and in a trice
Tweak'd by their tails their hands and feet the Mice;
Down went each ported spear, in withering dread
The pale Mice halted, trembled, turn'd, and fled17!
Ay! the Mice fled—and at the set of sun
'Twas silence all,—their one day war was done18.
