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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1785-1837] Romantic Age » John Wolcott-Peter Pindar

John Wolcott-Peter Pindar

Ballade to a Fish of the Brooke

[c1787-97] John Wolcot [Peter Pindar], Ballade to a Fish of the Brooke in Vol 5 of The Works of Peter Pindar ([First Edition of Works (London, 1797); Poems possibly published as early as 1787 in Poems on Various Subjects]; London, 1812; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

Why flyest thou away, with fear?
Trust me, there's nought of danger near;
I have no wicked hooke,
All cover'd with a snaring bait,
Alas ! to tempt thee to thy fate,
And dragge thee from the brooke.

O harmless Tenant of the Flood,
I do not wish to spill thy blood;
For Nature unto thee
Perchance hath given a tender wife,
And children dear, to charme thy life,
As she hath done for me.

Enjoy thy streame, O harmless Fish!
And when an Angler, for his dish,
Through gluttony's vile sin,
Attempts, a wretch, to pull thee out;
God give thee strength, O gentle Trout,
To pull the raskall in! (108)