Explore "The Lion, Eagle and Bat" by Tomás de Iriarte on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Eagle and Lion / Held solemn debate; / To settle between them / Some matters of state
Loud complaints of the Bat / Made the Eagle -- "How long / Shall this pitiful creature / Dare do us such wrong?
With my vassals mixing, / To her birdship she clings, -- / As proof irrefragable, / Showing her wings;
But says, when she chooses / Our laws to defy, / I'm no subject of yours; / A plain quadruped I.
Would you call me a Bird?
A sad blunder you've made!
For I wear a broad snout, / And no beak, on my head?
With my vassals, she slanders / The Beasts of your reign; / When among you she wanders, / Of the Birds will complain."
"In my realm," said the Lion, / "No more shall she come. " -- / "Nor in mine," said the Eagle -- / "Let that be her doom."
Thenceforward, in darkness, / She wanders alone; / No Bird and no Beast / Such companion will own.
Bats of authors, who seek / To be two things at once, / Take care lest ye prove / In both -- but a dunce!