244 '^^^^ Poets Beasts. 



ram, " the flocke's father," finds but scanty reference ; the 

 truth being that this generous and bold-fronted beast mars 

 the symmetry of the poetical sheep-idea. His independent 

 bearing, his courage in misfortune, spoil the woolly-silky- 

 gentle picture. In the olden verse the rams that " fight for 

 the rule of the rich-fleeced flock," and " meet so fierce with 

 horned fronts," receive a robust and becoming sympathy, 

 which is in accordance with the splendid traditions of the 

 beast — 



"As when two rams, stir'd with ambitious piide, 

 Fight for the rule of the rich-fleeced flocke, 

 Their horned fronts so fierce on either side 

 Doe meete, that, with the terror of the sliocke 

 Astonied, both stand sencelesse as a blocke, 

 ForgetfuU of the hanging victory : 

 So stood these twaine, unmoved as a rocke, 

 Both staring fiercely, .and holding idely 

 The broken reliques of their former cruelly." 



The ewe, the "mumbling" ewe, has but little indivi- 

 duality. They call her " Goody Sheep," and, in Mother 

 Hubbard's delightful tale, the fox and wolf flout her when 

 she comes to complain to the ape — then ruler of the four- 

 footed — of the loss of her young. She is only the mother of 

 the lamb. Eagles stooping from their watch-towers and 

 " gathering large tribute from every vale," — wolves rushing 

 from the bushes upon the gamboling lambkins, — the butcher 

 levying his toll upon the flock, all relegate her to obscurity. 

 Take away her lamb and she vanishes into nonentity. Give 

 her another, and she reappears. 



" Slic provident 

 Her milky treasures lor Ills life reserves, 

 Butting intruders wiili a frown away. 

 At length he finds her, and with bended knee^, 

 Emblem of innocence and filial giace 

 His plenteous meal receives, and bleats no more." 



In Nature the mother and her young one are ever a delight- 



