Explore "The Duck and the Snake" by Tomás de Iriarte on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On the borders of a pond / Stood a Duck, discoursing thus: / "Nature to me is generous / All creatures else beyond.
For my life, it hath no bound / Water, earth or air within; / I can fly or I can swim, / When a-weary of the ground."
A cunning Snake stood by.
And heard the vaunting strain; / And hissing said, "How vain / To hold yourself so high!
Not on land with the fleet Stag, / Or swift Falcon in the air, / Can you make good your brag: / In the water, too, the Trout / Will beat you out and out: / You with neither can compare."
The wise man knoweth well, / That it is not wisdom's end / In all things to pretend, -- / But in something to excel.