A kid to-morrow shall be thine,

Whose swelling brows, just budding, bear

“The horns that presage love and strife;

How vainly! For his crimson blood

Shall stain the silver of thy flood

With all the herd’s most wanton life.

“The burning Dogstar’s noontide beam

Knows not thy secret nook; the ox

Parched from the plough, the fielding flocks,

Lap grateful coolness from thy stream.