Explore "The Cocks" by Tomás de Iriarte on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A Cock, that was well known / As a champion brave and stout, / And a Chicken but half grown / Squabbled something about, -- / But what, to me's unknown, -- / And, after furious din, / At last got up a very pretty battle; / In which the chick such fight did show, / And the old one around so sharply rattle, / That, with a loud, exultant crow, / He claimed the honors of the field to win.
Then the seraglio's vanquished lord, -- / His rival out of hearing of his tongue, -- / Said, "Ah! in time he'll make a pretty bird, / But, now, poor fellow, he is very young."
No more he dared himself to match / With the young hero; but again / With an old Cock he had a scratch, -- / Of many fights, a veteran, -- / Who hardly left him plume or crest.
Whereon he muttered to the rest, / "The fine old fellow! -- surely it would be / Unfair to thrash so old a chap as he."
Let him that will in strife engage / On any question literary, / Pay less attention to the age / Than talents of his adversary.