OF TEMPER.
65
Yet o'er each rank, and age, and sex, his sway
Spreads undiscern'd, and makes the world his prey.
The light coquet, amid flirtation, sighs,
To find him lurk in Pleasure's vain disguise;
And the grave nun discovers, in her cell,
That holy water but augments his spell.
As the strange monster of the serpent breed,
That haunts, as travellers tell, the marshy mead,
Devours each nobler beast, tho' firmly grown
To size and strength superior to his own;—
For on the grazing horse, or larger bull,
Subtly he springs, of dark saliva full,
With swiftly-darting tongue his prey anoints
With venom, potent to dissolve its joints,
And, while its bulk in liquid poison swims,
Swallows its melting bone and fluid limbs:—
So this Ennui, this wonder-working elf,
Can vanquish powers far mightier than himself:
Nor Wit nor Science soar his reach above,
And oft he seizes on successful Love.
Spreads undiscern'd, and makes the world his prey.
The light coquet, amid flirtation, sighs,
To find him lurk in Pleasure's vain disguise;
And the grave nun discovers, in her cell,
That holy water but augments his spell.
As the strange monster of the serpent breed,
That haunts, as travellers tell, the marshy mead,
Devours each nobler beast, tho' firmly grown
To size and strength superior to his own;—
For on the grazing horse, or larger bull,
Subtly he springs, of dark saliva full,
With swiftly-darting tongue his prey anoints
With venom, potent to dissolve its joints,
And, while its bulk in liquid poison swims,
Swallows its melting bone and fluid limbs:—
So this Ennui, this wonder-working elf,
Can vanquish powers far mightier than himself:
Nor Wit nor Science soar his reach above,
And oft he seizes on successful Love.
