Betimes a meagre meal, as you can vouch,)

I fell asleep; and lo! I seemed to crouch

Among the boulders, and for fish to wait,

Still dangling, rod in hand, my vagrant bait.

A fat fellow caught it: (e'en in sleep I'm bound

To dream of fishing, as of crusts the hound:)

Fast clung he to the hooks; his blood outwelled;

Bent with his struggling was the rod I held:

I tugged and tugged: my efforts made me ache:

'How, with a line thus slight, this monster take?'