The Vultures and the Pigeons

Mars once made havoc in the air: / Some cause aroused a quarrel there / Among the birds; -- not those that sing, / The courtiers of the merry Spring, / And by their talk, in leafy bowers, / Of loves they feel, enkindle ours; / Nor those which Cupid's mother yokes / To whirl on high her golden spokes; / But naughty hawk and vulture folks, / Of hooked beak and talons keen. / The carcass of a dog, 'tis said, / Had to this civil carnage led. / Blood rain'd upon the swarded green, / And valiant deeds were done, I ween. / But time and breath would surely fail / To give the fight in full detail; / Suffice to say, that chiefs were slain, / And heroes strow'd the sanguine plain, / Till old Prometheus, in his chains, / Began to hope an end of pains. / 'Twas sport to see the battle rage, / And valiant hawk with hawk engage; / 'Twas pitiful to see them fall, -- / Torn, bleeding, weltering, gasping, all. / Force, courage, cunning, all were plied; / Intrepid troops on either side / No effort spared to populate / The dusky realms of hungry Fate. / This woful strife awoke compassion / Within another feather'd nation, / Of iris neck and tender heart. / They tried their hand at mediation -- / To reconcile the foes, or part. / The pigeon people duly chose / Ambassadors, who work'd so well / As soon the murderous rage to quell, / And stanch the source of countless woes. / A truce took place, and peace ensued. / Alas! the people dearly paid / Who such pacification made! / Those cursed hawks at once pursued / The harmless pigeons, slew and ate, / Till towns and fields were desolate. / Small prudence had the friends of peace / To pacify such foes as these!

The safety of the rest requires / The bad should flesh each other's spears: / Whoever peace with them desires / Had better set them by the ears.[1]