Who, like their Parents, haunt the Fields, and bring
Their Honey-Harvest home, and hope another Spring.
The Warlike-Steed is multiply'd, we find,
To Wasps, and Hornets of the Warrior Kind.
Cut from a Crab his crooked Claws, and hide
The rest in Earth, a Scorpion thence will glide,
And shoot his Sting, his Tail in Circles toss'd
Refers the Limbs his backward Father lost:
And Worms, that stretch on Leaves their filmy Loom,
Crawl from their Bags, and Butterflies become.
Ev'n Slime begets the Frogs loquacious Race:
Short of their Feet at first, in little space
With Arms, and Legs endu'd, long Leaps they take
Rais'd on their hinder Part, and swim the Lake,
And Waves repel: For Nature gives their Kind,
To that Intent, a Length of Legs behind.
The Cubs of Bears a living Lump appear.
When whelp'd, and no determin'd Figure wear.
Their Mother licks 'em into Shape, and gives
As much of form, as she her self receives.
The Grubs from their sexangular Abode
Crawl out unfinish'd, like the Maggot's Brood:
Trunks without Limbs; till time at leisure brings
The Thighs they wanted, and their tardy Wings.
The Bird who draws the Carr of Juno, vain
Of her crown'd Head, and of her Starry Train;
And he that tears th' Artillery of Jove,
The strong-pounc'd Eagle, and the billing Dove;
And all the feather'd Kind, who cou'd suppose
(But that from Sight the surest Sense he knows)
They from th' included Yolk, not ambient White arose.
There are, who think the Marrow of a Man,
Which in the Spine, while he was living, ran;
When dead, the Pith corrupted will become
A Snake, and hiss within the hollow Tomb.
Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/281
Book 15.
Ovid's Metamorphoses.
257
All
