The Trout first under observation Had much too much imagination: Because he let his fancy rule him, It wasn't any trick to fool him. Some vari-colored bits of feather By crafty fingers tied together Appeared -- it really seems incredible -- To him appeared distinctly edible. And hence, by all his friends regretted, This hapless Trout was played and netted. A second Trout, devoid of vision, At pretty-pretties flung derision. His soul was mean, his brain was earthly, His body waxed unduly girthly. No gaudy flies, no fancy dishes, But grubs, said he, were food for fishes: Yet those that rush for grubs and win them See not the barbs that lie within them; And this low-minded Trout was fated To meet a hook adroitly baited. Our final Trout was too suspicious: Because he knew that @3men@1 are vicious, In every fly that hit the water He saw an instrument of slaughter, -- In every toothsome caterpillar A @3salmo-fontinalis@1-killer. So, like a veteran dyspeptic, At dinner-time a bitter skeptic, For fear of eating indiscreetly The creature starved himself completely. Which proves, I think, beyond a doubt, Whatever way you work it out, That life is mighty hard on Trout. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 55. ST. VALENTINE'S DAY by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT DREAM SONG: 1 by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR MUSIC, FR. TWELFTH NIGHT by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS |