178 The Poets Beasts. 



Fixed is the bearded lance, unwelcome guest, 

 Where'er he flies ; with him it sinks beneath, 

 With him it mounts, sure guide to ev'ry foe. 

 Inly he groans, nor can his tender wound 

 Bear the cold stream. 



See ! there escaped he flies 

 Half-drowned, and clambers up the slipp'ry bank 

 With ooze and blood distained. Of all the brutes 

 Whether by Nature formed or by long use, 

 This artful diver best can bear the want 

 Of crystal air. Unequal is the fight 

 Beneath the whelming element, yet there 

 He lives not long, but respiration needs 

 At proper intervals. 



Lo ! to yon sedgy bank 

 He creeps disconsolate : his num'rous foes 

 Surround him, hounds and men. Pierced thro' and thro' 

 On pointed spears they lift him high in air ; 

 Wriggling he hangs, and grins, and bites in vain. 

 Bid ihe loud horns, in gaily warbling strains, 

 Proclaim the felon's fate. He dies, he dies ! " 



Gay also is an enthusiast in his hatred of the otter, and in 

 other poets "this subtle spoiler of the beaver kind," "the 

 sly goose-footed prowler," is marked out as a proper object 

 of the chase. 



" Would you preserve a num'rous finny race. 

 Let your fierce dogs the rav'nous otter chase, 

 Th' amphibious monster ranges all the shores. 

 Darts thro' the waves and ev'ry haunt explores. 

 Or let the gin his roving steps betray, 

 And save from hostile jaws the scaly prey." 



In myth the otter is a creature of formidable character — 

 "like a swift otter, fell through greedinesse" is Spenser's 

 simile for the invader from over-sea, and there was nearly 

 as much trouble in Asgard over the killing of the great 

 otter, brother of Fafnir, as in the Troad over the rape of 



