Placid Pug, and Other Rhymes — The Placid Pug

`Harnessed in silk and led by leathern lead, Lives his dull life, and recks not of the Shark `In distant waters.

Lapped in sloth and greed, He fails in strenuous life to make a mark, The placid Pug that paces in the park.

= Round the slow circle of his nights and days `His life revolves in calm monotony.

Not unsusceptible to casual praise, `And mildly moved by the approach of "tea," No forked and jagged lightning leaps and plays Round the slow circle of his nights and days.

= He scarcely turns his round protuberant eyes, `To mark the mood of animals or men.

His joy is limited to mild surmise `When a new biscuit swims into his ken.

And when athwart his gaze a Rabbit flies, He scarcely turns his round protuberant eyes.

= And all the while the Shark in Southern seas [Illustration: 013] `Pursues the paths of his pulsating quest, Though the thermometer at fierce degrees `Might well admonish him to take a rest, The Pug at home snores in ignoble ease.

(And all the while the Shark in Southern seas!

)= If Pugs like Sharks were brought up in the sea `And forced to swim long miles to find their food, Tutored to front the Hake's hostility, `And beard the Lobster in his dangerous mood, Would not their lives more sane, more useful be, If Pugs like Sharks were brought up in the sea?

= The placid Pug still paces in the park, `Untouched by thoughts of all that might have been.

Undreaming that he might have "steered his bark" `Through many a stirring sight and stormy scene.

But being born a Pug and not a Shark The placid Pug still paces in the park.

= BALLAD FOR BISHOPS

|BISHOPS and others who inhabit The mansions of the blest on earth,