Bird Haunts and Nature Memories — Chapter 16

"But having entered in,Great growths and small,Show them to men akin,Combatants all!Sycamore shoulders oak,Bines the slim sapling yoke,Ivy-spun halters chokeElms stout and tall."

"How lizard fed on ant, and snake on him,And kite on both; and how the fish-hawk robbedThe fish-tiger of that which it had seized;The shrike chasing the bulbul, which did huntThe jewelled butterflies; till everywhereEach slew a slayer and in turn was slain,Life living upon death. So the fair showVeiled one vast, savage, grim conspiracyOf mutual murder, from the worm to man,Who himself kills his fellow."

"All the jungle laughed with nesting-songs,And all the thickets rustled with small lifeOf lizard, bee, beetle, and creeping thingsPleased at the spring-time."