One summer eve, a monster of the kind,
Hungry for prey, had left his troop behind;
Ranging alone, he spread dismay where'er
His bay was heard, as if a host were there:
Beneath his tusk of steel, his breath of flame,
Italia's bowers a wilderness became:
Grain for a while and sheep he stole away,
But, quitting these, he sought a nobler prey,—
The tender babe, even in its mother's view,
He bore to crags, where no one dared pursue: