Explore "Manticor in Arabia" by Robert Graves on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(The manticors of the montaines
Mighte feed them on thy braines. -- Skelton.)
/ Thick and scented daisies spread / Where with surface dull like lead / Arabian pools of slime invite / Manticors down from neighbouring height / To dip heads, to cool fiery blood / In oozy depths of sucking mud.
Sing then of ringstraked manticor, / Man-visaged tiger who of yore / Held whole Arabian waste in fee / With raging pride from sea to sea, / That every lesser tribe would fly / Those armed feet, that hooded eye;
Till preying on himself at last / Manticor dwindled, sank, was passed / By gryphon flocks he did disdain. / Ay, wyverns and rude dragons reign / In ancient keep of manticor / Agreed old foe can rise no more.
Only here from lakes of slime / Drinks manticor and bides due time: / Six times Fowl Phoenix in yon tree / Must mount his pyre and burn and be / Renewed again, till in such hour / As seventh Phoenix flames to power / And lifts young feathers, overnice / From scented pool of steamy spice / Shall manticor his sway restore / And rule Arabian plains once more.