Robert Browning - TrayRobert Browning - Tray
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Sing me a hero! Quench my thirst
Of soul, ye bards!
Quoth Bard the first:
"Sir Olaf, the good knight, did don
His helm, and eke his habergeon ..."
Sir Olaf and his bard----!
"That sin-scathed brow" (quoth Bard the second),
"That eye wide ope as tho` Fate beckoned
My hero to some steep, beneath
Which precipice smiled tempting Death ..."
You too without your host have reckoned!
"A beggar-child" (let`s hear this third!)
"Sat on a quay`s edge: like a bird
Sang to herself at careless play,
And fell into the stream. `Dismay!
Help, you the standers-by!` None stirred.
"Bystanders reason, think of wives
And children ere they risk their lives.
Over the balustrade has bounced
A mere instinctive dog, and pounced
Plumb on the prize. `How well he dives!
"`Up he comes with the child, see, tight
In mouth, alive too, clutched from quite
A depth of ten feet--twelve, I bet!
Good dog! What, off again? There`s yet
Another child to save? All right!
"`How strange we saw no other fall!
It`s instinct in the animal.
Good dog! But he`s a long while under:
If he got drowned I should not wonder--
Strong current, that against the wall!
"`Here he comes, holds in mouth this time
--What may the thing be? Well, that`s prime!
Now, did you ever? Reason reigns
In man alone, since all Tray`s pains
Have fished--the child`s doll from the slime!`
"And so, amid the laughter gay,
Trotted my hero off,--old Tray,--
Till somebody, prerogatived
With reason, reasoned: `Why he dived,
His brain would show us, I should say.
"`John, go and catch--or, if needs be,
Purchase that animal for me!
By vivisection, at expense
Of half-an-hour and eighteen pence,
How brain secretes dog`s soul, we`ll see!`"
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