RUBAIYAT OF A FISHERMAN 



Life's a pond with wriggling humans filled, 

 Each doomed to follow on the way that's willed. 

 The Fates cast out the lure and angle for 

 The young and old, the learned and unskilled. 



II 



I fling this little perch that mulled the needled hook 

 Back in the lake to seek some quiet windfall nook; 

 So do the Fates when Hope, perchance, has fled 

 Fling back to those who wait, a soul they took. 



ill 



As do the gobbling sunfish herd round the angle- 

 worm 



So do we mortals, for wealth and high position, 

 squirm. 



Turn on the light, let's see him at his worst, 



What boots it fish or man each one's a germ. 



Albert Jay Cook. 



247 



