Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The Worlds Best Poetry. Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | Poems of Fancy: III. Mythical: Mystical: Legendary | A Transformation | Ovid (43 B.C.18 A.D.) |
| From the Latin by Henry King
From The Metamorphoses WEARY and travel-worn,her lips unwet | |
With water,at a straw-thatched cottage door | |
The wanderer knocked. An ancient crone came forth | |
And saw her need, and hospitable brought | |
Her bowl of barley-broth, and bade her drink. | 5 |
Thankful she raised it; but a graceless boy | |
And impudent stood by, and, ere the half | |
Was drained, Ha! ha! see how the glutton swills! | |
With insolent jeer he cried. The goddesss ire | |
Was roused; and as he spoke, what liquor yet | 10 |
The bowl retained, full in his face she dashed. | |
His cheeks broke out in blotches; what were arms | |
Turned legs, and from the shortened trunk a tail | |
Tapered behind. Small mischief evermore | |
Might that small body work: the lizards self | 15 |
Was larger now than he. With terror shrieked | |
The crone, and weeping, stooped her altered child | |
To raise; the little monster fled her grasp | |
And wriggled into hiding. Still his name | |
His nature tells, and, from the star-light spots | 20 |
That mark him, known as Stellio, crawls the Newt. | | | |
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