Cast in no mortal mould its growth of limb
Dame Nature orders by the strangest whim.
'Tis born, and lo! a giant form appears;
Toward middle age a smaller size it wears;
And now again, its day of life nigh o'er,
How wonderful gigantic as before. —F. Metcalfe.
Theodectes. (Book x. § 75, p. 713.)
We're sisters twain, one dying bears the other:
She too expires, and so brings forth her mother. —F. Metcalfe.