"Awaked at last, we found the waves had stranded96
A store of waifs portentous and nefarious;
Here a dead whale was at my elbow landed,
There a sick polypus, that sea-Briareus,
Stretch'd out its claws to incorporate my corpus;
While howl'd the hound half buried by a porpoise!
"Nimbly I rose, disporpoising my friend;—97
Around me scatter'd lay more piteous wrecks,
With every wave the accursed Tritons send
Some sad memento of submergent decks,
Prows, rudders, casks, ropes, blubber, hides, and hooks,
Sailors, salt beef, tubs, cabin boys, and cooks.
"Graves on the dead, with pious care bestow'd,98
(Graves in the ice hewn out with mickle pain
By axe and bill, which with the waifs had flow'd
To that strange shore) I next collect the gain;
Placed in a hollow cleft—and cover'd o'er;—
Then Knight and hound proceeded to explore.
"Far had we wander'd, for the storm had join'd99
To a great isle of ice, our friend the floe,
When as the day (three hours its length!) declined,
Out bray'd a roar; I stared around, and lo
A flight of dwarfs about the size of sea-moths,
Chased by two bears that might have eat behemoths!
"Arm'd with the axe the Tritons had ejected,100
I rush'd to succour the Pigmæan nation,
In strife our valour, I have oft suspected,
Proportions safety to intoxication,
As drunken men securely walk on walls
From which the wretch who keeps his senses falls;
"Let but the noble frenzy seize the brain,101
And strength divine seems breathed into the form;
The rill when swollen swallows up a plain,
The breeze runs mad before it blows a storm;
To do great deeds, first lose your wits,—then do them!
In fine—I burst upon the bears, and slew them!
"The dwarfs, deliver'd, kneel, and pull their noses;[15]102
In tugs which mean to say 'The Pigmy Nation
A vote of thanks respectfully proposes
From all the noses of the corporation!'
Your Highness knows 'Magister Artis Venter:'
On signs for breakfast my replies concenter!
"Quick they conceive, and quick obey; the beasts103
Are skinn'd, and drawn, and quarter'd in a trice,
But Vulcan leaves Diana to the feasts,
And not a wood-nymph consecrates the ice—
Bear is but so-so, when 'tis cook'd the best,
But bear just skinn'd and perfectly undrest!
"Then I bethink me of the planks and casks104
Stow'd in the cleft—for fuel quantum suff:
I draw the dwarfs—sore chattering, from their tasks,
Choose out the morsels least obdurely tough;
With these I load the Pigmies—bid them follow—
Regain the haven, and review the hollow.
"But when those minnow-men beheld the whale105
It really was a spectacle affecting!
They shout, they sob, they leap—embrace the tail,
Peep in the jaws; then, round me re-collecting,
Draw forth these noselings from their hiding places,
Which serve as public speakers to their faces!