Possessed of royal appetite, and feeling rather thin, <br />A monkey one day dressed himself in a tiger's skin <br />The tiger had been nasty; the monkey was atrocious, <br />Wearing on his back the right to be ferocious. <br />He set himself to gnashing teeth and let loose with this cry: <br />Conqueror of the jungle, the night's dark king am I! <br />As a bandit of the forest, in the bushes he lurked, <br />And snatched away and murdered and other horrors worked. <br />Laid waste the forest, slit the throats of those passing through, <br />And with the skin that covered him did all it used to do. <br />He lived within a cave, knee-deep in butchery, <br />And all who saw the skin believed the tiger was he. <br />He would cry out, would bring forth a truly terrible roar: <br />Behold within my cave the bones of victims before. <br />Before me all draw back and shudder, everyone doth flee, <br />All tremble - I am tiger! Look! and worship me! <br />The animals were all awe-struck and fled with great alarm, <br />A lion-tamer came and grabbed him with his arm, <br />And ripped off the tiger's skin like a flimsy piece of tissue, <br />Laid bare this 'conqueror' and said, 'You're just a monkey, you!'<br /><br />Victor Marie Hugo<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fable-or-history/
