Is shed, the languor of approaching noon;

To shady rest withdrawing or withdrawn

Mute are all creatures, as this couchant fawn, 5

Save insect-swarms that hum in air afloat,

Save that the Cock is crowing, a shrill note,

Startling and shrill as that which roused the dawn.

—Heard in that hour, or when, as now, the nerve

Shrinks from the note[115] as from a mis-timed thing, 10

Oft for a holy warning may it serve,

Charged with remembrance of his sudden sting,