Relentless; nor can all the piercing cries

Of duckling, chick, or turkey, yet unfledg’d,

His heart obdurate move; instant he tears

Each trembling limb, devours the quivering flesh,

Nor leaves a remnant of the bloody feast,

Save a few fluttering feathers scatter’d round

(That, with their varied plumage, whilom deck’d

The slaughter’d prey), to tell the hapless tale.

Thus joyless do I spend those hours the sun

Illuminates; and, when the silver moon