AN ass munched thistles, while a nightingale From passion's fountain flooded all the vale. "Hee-haw!" cried he, "I hearken," as who knew For such ear-largess humble thanks were due. "Friend," said the winged pain, "in vain you bray, Who tunnels bring, not cisterns, for my lay; None but his peers the poet rightly hear, Nor mete we listeners by their length of ear." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PURPLE COW by FRANK GELETT BURGESS THE GRASSHOPPER AND CRICKET by JOHN KEATS THE DOOMED MAN by JOSEPH ADDISON ALEXANDER TO A WOMAN by KENNETH SLADE ALLING STANZAS ADDRESSED TO SOME FRIEND GOING TO THE SEA-SIDE by BERNARD BARTON URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: THE FOURTH CANTO, OR LAST QUARTER by WILLIAM BASSE |