LEX TALIONIS.
33
Where the weak and the timid seem lawful prey
For the resolute and the strong
Fins, furs, and feathers, they are and were
For our use and pleasure created,
We can shoot, and hunt, and angle, and snare,
Unquestioned, if not unsated.
For the resolute and the strong
Fins, furs, and feathers, they are and were
For our use and pleasure created,
We can shoot, and hunt, and angle, and snare,
Unquestioned, if not unsated.
I have neither the will nor the right to blame,
Yet to many (though not to all)
The sweets of destruction are somewhat tame,
When no personal risks befall;
Our victims suffer but little we trust
(Mere guess work and blank enigma),
If they suffer at all, our field sports must
Of cruelty bear the stigma.
Yet to many (though not to all)
The sweets of destruction are somewhat tame,
When no personal risks befall;
Our victims suffer but little we trust
(Mere guess work and blank enigma),
If they suffer at all, our field sports must
Of cruelty bear the stigma.
Shall we, hard-hearted to their fates, thus
Soft-hearted shrink from our own
When the measure we mete is meted to us,
When we reap as we've always sown?
Shall we who for pastime have squander'd life,
Who are styled “the Lords of Creation,”
Recoil from our chance of more equal strife,
And our risk of retaliation ?
Soft-hearted shrink from our own
When the measure we mete is meted to us,
When we reap as we've always sown?
Shall we who for pastime have squander'd life,
Who are styled “the Lords of Creation,”
Recoil from our chance of more equal strife,
And our risk of retaliation ?
