The Frog And The Tadpole

: Literary Fables Of Yriarte

On Tagus' banks, in artless wonder,

A little Tadpole, on a canebrake gazing,

Long with its mother chatted of the leaves,

Of the huge stalks, and verdure so amazing;

But now the air with the fierce tempest heaves,

And the rough winds the canebrake rent asunder--

A broken cane into the stream fell over;

"Come, look, my child," now said the thoughtful mother,

"Without, so strong, luxuriant and smooth--

Within, all pith and emptiness, forsooth!"



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If our good Frog some poets' works had read,

Perchance, of them she might the same have said.