Classic Poem

( " Un lion habitait pres d'une source. " )

Anigh a desert-spring a lion dwelt; an eagle
Drank from the same clear flow.
One morn it chanced two warrior-chiefs of aspect regal —
Often fate suffers so —

Drew nigh this spring which with its broad and shadowy palms
Allures the traveller,
And, recognizing each his foe, flashed sudden arms,
Fought, — and fell bleeding there.

Then, while they breathed their last, the eagle, hovering
O'er lowly heads, shrilled loud:
" Ye found the whole wide earth for you too small a thing,
That are less than a little cloud!

" O Princes! and your bones, strong yester-night with youth,
Will be, to-morrow morn,
Stones mingled with the stones o' the track, but sooner in sooth
By travellers' footing worn.

" Ye fools! for what great end was this bright-flashing strife,
Your duel fierce and rude!
I, th' Eagle, and yon lion lead a peaceful life
In this vast solitude.

" Both come to quench our thirst at the same crystal fount,
Kings in the same dominions;
He roams in lordly wise the prairie, forest, mount, —
The air's swept by my pinions! "