1 50 The Poets and Nature. 



" The curious sage 

 Ranks in classes all the fishy race, 

 From those enormous monsters of the main, 

 Who in their world like other tyrants reign, 

 To the poor cockle-tribe, that humble band, 

 Who cleave to rocks, or loiter on the strand. 

 Yet ev'n their shells the forming hand divine 

 Has, with distinguish'd lustre, taught to shine. 

 What bright enamel, and what various dyes, 

 What lively tints delight our wond'ring eyes." 



What reckless adventurer first dared to swallow an 

 oyster? Was it some miserable pearl-diving slave who 

 desperately hoped to steal the accompanying gem, and thus 

 arrive at the price of his ransom ? 



" For them the Ceylon diver held his breath, 

 And went all naked to the hungry shark, 

 For them his ears gushed blood." Keats. 



Or was it some poor shipwrecked wretch, groping about 

 among the rocks of his barren island, who, to save dear life, 

 first bolted the unlovely bivalve ? Surely nothing less than 

 a last despairing effort to regain liberty or preserve life 

 could have nerved the primitive oyster-eater to the shocking 

 act. The poet Gay attributes the discovery to the jaded 

 appetite of luxury. 



" The man had sure a palate covered o'er 

 With brass or steel that on the rocky shore 

 First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat, 

 And risk'd the living morsel down his throat." 



" What will not luxury taste ? " he asks. It does not follow 

 from this that Gay did not like oysters ; indeed there is 

 evidence in his verse that he was partial to shell-fish. But 

 the tendency of poets is to make fun of the amiable mollusc. 

 Cowper, who, it seems to me, had very little real tenderness 

 for the weak, though something of a jelly-fish himself, sneers 

 at the oyster for not feeling anything till " the knife is at its 

 throat." Byron laughs at the idea of its being crossed in 



