What sort of vile creature is this?
Willamena
19-01-2005, 20:44
Nimbly they seized and secreted their prey,
Alive and wriggling in the elastic net,
Which Nature hung beneath their grasping beaks;
Till, swoln, with captures, the unwieldy burden
Clogg'd their slow flight, as heavily to land,
These mighty hunters of the deep return'd.
There on the cragged cliffs they perch'd at ease,
Gorging their hapless victims one by one;
Then full and weary, side by side, they slept,
Till evening roused them to the chase again.
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What sort of vile creature is the author espousing, here?
Quentulus Qazgar
19-01-2005, 20:46
A spider, perhaps?
Nihilistic Beginners
19-01-2005, 20:53
either a bald eagle or a sea-gull
its a sea bird i bet
Sanka the druglord
19-01-2005, 20:54
pelican )
StarkRavinMad
19-01-2005, 20:54
A pelican.
Jordaxia
19-01-2005, 20:55
Also pelican.
Janers place
19-01-2005, 20:56
I'm going to guess that its some sort of night-roveing sea bird type thing.
The Hitler Jugend
19-01-2005, 20:57
Depends on where the author lives, and/or what nationality and/or religion he/she is.
Willamena
19-01-2005, 20:57
I was hoping to draw the mystery out a bit longer. (Darn the accessibility of world wide web!) ;)
Yes, it's from Pelican Island, by James Montgomery.
Bodies Without Organs
19-01-2005, 21:01
What sort of vile creature is the author espousing, here?
I was going to say that 'Elastic net' and 'beaks' suggests squid or octopus to me, but to fit the second half of the stanza would have to be somewhat metaphorical...
***
I'll add what I always believed was Spike Milligan's take on the Pelican here, if I may, although it turns out to actually be by a chap called Dixon Lanier Merrit:
A wonderful bird is the Pelican;
His beak can hold more than his belican
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I'm dammed if I see how the helican
Willamena
19-01-2005, 21:07
A wonderful bird is the Pelican;
His beak can hold more than his belican
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I'm dammed if I see how the helican
Haha :)
Janers place
19-01-2005, 21:21
I was going to say that 'Elastic net' and 'beaks' suggests squid or octopus to me, but to fit the second half of the stanza would have to be somewhat metaphorical...
***
I'll add what I always believed was Spike Milligan's take on the Pelican here, if I may, although it turns out to actually be by a chap called Dixon Lanier Merrit:
A wonderful bird is the Pelican;
His beak can hold more than his belican
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week
But I'm dammed if I see how the helican
Nice !!