| [00:04] |
Hear now a curious dream I dreamed last night |
| [00:06] |
Each word whereof is weighed and sifted truth. |
| [00:11] |
I stood beside Euphrates while it swelled |
| [00:16] |
Like overflowing Jordan in its youth: |
| [00:18] |
It waxed and coloured sensibly to sight; |
| [00:20] |
Till out of myriad pregnant waves there welled |
| [00:24] |
Young crocodiles, a gaunt blunt-featured crew, |
| [00:28] |
Fresh-hatched perhaps and daubed with birthday dew. |
| [00:32] |
The rest if I should tell, I fear my friend |
| [00:36] |
My closest friend would deem the facts untrue; |
| [00:38] |
And therefore it were wisely left untold; |
| [00:42] |
Yet if you will, why, hear it to the end. |
| [00:51] |
Each crocodile was girt with massive gold |
| [00:55] |
And polished stones that with their wearers grew: |
| [00:59] |
But one there was who waxed beyond the rest, |
| [01:01] |
Wore kinglier girdle and a kingly crown, |
| [01:05] |
Whilst crowns and orbs and sceptres starred his breast. |
| [01:10] |
All gleamed compact and green with scale on scale, |
| [01:14] |
But special burnishment adorned his mail |
| [01:16] |
And special terror weighed upon his frown; |
| [01:19] |
His punier brethren quaked before his tail, |
| [01:22] |
Broad as a rafter, potent as a flail. |
| [01:28] |
So he grew lord and master of his kin: |
| [01:32] |
But who shall tell the tale of all their woes? |
| [01:36] |
An execrable appetite arose, |
| [01:37] |
He battened on them, crunched, and sucked them in. |
| [01:40] |
He knew no law, he feared no binding law, |
| [01:43] |
But ground them with inexorable jaw: |
| [01:45] |
The luscious fat distilled upon his chin, |
| [01:47] |
Exuded from his nostrils and his eyes, |
| [01:49] |
While still like hungry death he fed his maw; |
| [01:54] |
Till every minor crocodile being dead |
| [01:56] |
And buried too, himself gorged to the full, |
| [02:01] |
He slept with breath oppressed and unstrung claw. |
| [02:08] |
Oh marvel passing strange which next I saw: |
| [02:12] |
In sleep he dwindled to the common size, |
| [02:15] |
And all the empire faded from his coat. |
| [02:20] |
Then from far off a wingèd vessel came, |
| [02:23] |
Swift as a swallow, subtle as a flame: |
| [02:25] |
I know not what it bore of freight or host, |
| [02:28] |
But white it was as an avenging ghost. |
| [02:31] |
It levelled strong Euphrates in its course; |
| [02:34] |
Supreme yet weightless as an idle mote |
| [02:37] |
It seemed to tame the waters without force |
| [02:39] |
Till not a murmur swelled or billow beat: |
| [02:44] |
Lo, as the purple shadow swept the sands, |
| [02:46] |
The prudent crocodile rose on his feet |
| [02:50] |
And shed appropriate tears and wrung his hands. |
| [02:53] |
What can it mean? you ask. I answer not |
| [02:57] |
For meaning, but myself must echo, |
| [03:04] |
And tell it as I saw it on the spot |
