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The Mountain In Labour.
By Jean de La Fontaine
[1]
A mountain was in travail pang;
The country with her clamour rang.
Out ran the people all, to see,
Supposing that the birth would be
A city, or at least a house.
It was a mouse!
In thinking of this fable,
Of story feign'd and false,
But meaning veritable,
My mind the image calls
Of one who writes, "The war I sing
Which Titans waged against the Thunder-king."[2]
As on the sounding verses ring,
What will be brought to birth?
Why, dearth.
Extra Info:
[1] Phaedrus, IV. 22.
[2] The War, &c. - The war of the Gods and Titans (sons of Heaven and Earth); vide Hesiod, Theogony, I. 1083, Bohn's ed.
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