Some Poets Horses, 303 



" Up against the hill they strain, 

 Tugging at the iron chain." 



Joanna Baillie has a bitter passage : is there still all the 

 old truth about it ? 



* ' What forms are these with lean galled sides ? In vain 

 Their laxed and ropy sinews sorely strain 

 Heaped loads to draw, with lash and goad urged on. 

 They were in other days, but lately gone, 

 The useful servants, dearly prized, of those 

 Who to their failing age give no repose — 

 Of thankless, heartless owners. Then full oft 

 Their arched, graceful necks, so sleek and soft, 

 Beneath a master's stroking hand would rear 

 Right proudly, as they neighed his voice to hear. 

 But now how changed ! And what marred things are these, 

 Starved, hooted, scarred, denied or food or ease ; 

 Whose humbled looks their bitter thraldrom show, 

 Familiar with the kick, the pinch, the blow ? 

 Alas ! in this sad fellowship are found 

 The playful kitten and the faithful hound." 



In metaphors and analogies, similes and morals drawn 

 from an original so exceptionally promising as the horse, 

 the poets show themselves strangely self-denying and even 

 parsimonious. In a great measure the dog forestalls it. 

 Moreover, when comparisons of courage, speed, or a gene- 

 rous spirit are sought there are the poets' lions and eagles 

 to draw upon. The horse therefore is made an adjunct 

 in description rather than a moral auxiliary. It adds a 

 material feature to the scene, but affords no lesson. The 

 poets, in fact, do not recognise the horse as an animal. It 

 is an equipment, an adornment, furniture. 



Herbert is a very striking exception ; he has a whole 

 quiver full of equine "jacula." Thus, for example, "a 

 jade eats as much as a good horse ; " " Who lets his wife 

 go to every feast, and his horse drink at every water, shall 

 neither have good wife nor horse ; " " The master's eye 



