Classic Poem

Have you heard about the hunt
that was famed throughout the townships?
'Twas done by night; it would have pleased us
no better, if done in the morning.
Since it was a bungle,
as was proved when it was finished,
we will formally maintain
'twas dark and nought was visible.
Gun-play by young men,
with candles, though they be lighted,
is outrageous night-work:
'twas folly led them out of doors.

They have heard in every place
of the blunder Patrick perpetrated,
when he announced to all
that the tawny kite had alighted;
he would swear it was enormous,
that it showed its grey breast,
and that it perched precisely
on the roof-ridge of the outhouse;
unless the door restrained it,
then the fowls would be scattered,
and few of them would be alive
unwounded ere daybreak.

Whereupon the huntsman seized
the gun that was in the rack;
he loaded it with large shot,
a whack of English ammunition.
This he directed at its throat,
and 'twere better to have gone past;
the fact is, he wrought carnage
the like of which was seldom seen:
when the powder flamed,
and he hoped to perform his exploit,
it was the midden rooster
that collapsed in a flutter.

He was, indeed, a handsome cock:
one part of him showed golden sheen,
another was like roses,
and he was largely snow-white;
his claws were of wide span,
on the field he was a stocky fellow;
most excellent long boots
were the downy tufts upon his legs;
on his feet were talons
which were unrivalled for the fray,
when it came to the Tuesday
on which all tested their valour.

This was, indeed, the charming cock
that was like the peacock,
and when he was mangled,
'twas ghastly for me to see him;
a physician could not heal him,
as his wounds bled ever faster,
surges of his foaming blood
outpouring from his skin.
This kill the men accomplished,
without ascending a hill-side,
without toiling far afield,
but 'twixt the fire and the door-step.

And the two who passed sentence
and left him there prostrate,
were the judge that convicted him
and the gamekeeper that brought him down;
they had not left him down and out
if he had fair play and justice;
he never did mischief,
good conduct was for him a habit;
he would begin calling
effectively, while we were sleeping,
and he would waken all of us,
so that we got up in the morning.

A letter went to Strathearn,
directed to James's daughter,
which would rightly tell the story
to that one of them known as Jessie:
that from the time the snow came
we have been disconsolate
about the cock we lost, and which
could scarcely be dispensed with;
since she is not close-fisted
nor addicted to parsimony,
she will render us a favour,
for, as a rule, she has resources.

A blessing rest on the maiden
who was obliging and civil,
and did not forget
to send home this document,
She sent a lad to these parts
with a treader for the poultry;
and he carried proudly
this precious gift in his oxter.
The hues of our departed one
are growing on the one we have,
and since the latter now succeeds him,
others will take him for his offspring.