Where hast thou floated, in what seas pursued <br />Thy pastime? When wast thou an egg new spawned, <br />Lost in the immensity of ocean's waste? <br />Roar as they might, the overbearing winds <br />That rocked the deep, thy cradle, thou wast safe-- <br />And in thy minikin and embyro state, <br />Attached to the firm leaf of some salt weed, <br />Didst outlive tempests, such as wrung and racked <br />The joints of many a stout and gallant bark, <br />And whelmed them in the unexplored abyss. <br />Indebted to no magnet and no chart, <br />Nor udner guidance of the polar fire, <br />Thou wast a voyager on many coasts, <br />Grazing at large in meadows submarine, <br />Where flat Batavia just emerging peeps <br />Above the brine,--where Caledonia's rocks <br />Beat back the surge,--and where Hibernia shoots <br />Her wondrous causeway far into the main. <br />--Wherever thou hast fed, thou little thoughtst, <br />And I not more, that I should feed on thee <br />Peace, therefore, and good health, and much good fish, <br />To him who sent thee! -- and success, as oft <br />As it descends into the billowy gulf, <br />To the same dreg that caught thee! -- Fare thee well! <br />Thy lot thy brethren of the slimy fin <br />Would envy, could they know that thou wast doomed <br />To feed a bard, and to be praised in verse.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-immortal-memory-of-the-halibut-on-which-i-dined-this-day-monday-april-26-1784/
