DESCRIPTION OF A HORSE 111 



Sometime he scuds far off, and there he stares; 



Anon he starts at stirring of a feather; 

 To bid the wind a base he now prepares, 



And, whether he run or fly, they know not whether ; 

 For through his mane and tail the high wind sings, 

 Fanning the hairs, that wave like feathered wings. 



Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds; 

 20 And now his woven girths he bursts asunder; 

 The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds, 



Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven's thunder; 

 The iron bit he crushes 'tween his teeth, 

 Controlling what he was controlled with. 



His ears up-pricked, his braided hanging mane 

 Upon his compassed crest now stands on end; 



His nostrils drink the air, and forth again 

 As from a furnace vapours doth he send ; 



His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire, 

 so Shows his hot courage and his high desire. 



Sometime he trots, as if he told the steps, 

 With gentle majesty and modest pride ; 



Anon he rears upright, curvets, and leaps 

 As who should say Lo, thus my strength is tried : 



What recketh he his master's angry stir? 



What cares he now for curb or pricking spur? 



Venus and Adonis. 



NOTES 



[Shakespeare's fame began with his Poems, of which the first 

 to be published was Venus and Adonis, in 1593. Like the 

 comedy of The Midsummer-Night's Dream, it is full of evidence of 

 the poet's intimate knowledge of country sights.] 



LINE 15. To bid the imnd a base. To challenge the wind to 



