A Fly Caught In A Cobweb Poem by Richard Lovelace

A Fly Caught In A Cobweb

Rating: 3.2


Small type of great ones, that do hum
Within this whole world's narrow room,
That with a busie hollow noise
Catch at the people's vainer voice,
And with spread sails play with their breath,
Whose very hails new christen death.
Poor Fly, caught in an airy net,
Thy wings have fetter'd now thy feet;
Where, like a Lyon in a toyl,
Howere thou keep'st a noble coyl,
And beat'st thy gen'rous breast, that o're
The plains thy fatal buzzes rore,
Till thy all-bellyd foe (round elf)
Hath quarter'd thee within himself.

Was it not better once to play
I' th' light of a majestick ray,
Where, though too neer and bold, the fire
Might sindge thy upper down attire,
And thou i' th' storm to loose an eye.
A wing, or a self-trapping thigh:
Yet hadst thou fal'n like him, whose coil
Made fishes in the sea to broyl,
When now th'ast scap'd the noble flame;
Trapp'd basely in a slimy frame,
And free of air, thou art become
Slave to the spawn of mud and lome?

Nor is't enough thy self do's dresse
To thy swoln lord a num'rous messe,
And by degrees thy thin veins bleed,
And piecemeal dost his poyson feed;
But now devour'd, art like to be
A net spun for thy familie,
And, straight expanded in the air,
Hang'st for thy issue too a snare.
Strange witty death and cruel ill
That, killing thee, thou thine dost kill!
Like pies, in whose entombed ark
All fowl crowd downward to a lark,
Thou art thine en'mies' sepulcher,
And in thee buriest, too, thine heir.

Yet Fates a glory have reserv'd
For one so highly hath deserv'd.
As the rhinoceros doth dy
Under his castle-enemy,
As through the cranes trunk throat doth speed,
The aspe doth on his feeder feed;
Fall yet triumphant in thy woe,
Bound with the entrails of thy foe.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Primrose Tee 03 May 2014

good poem................................................

2 1 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 28 March 2017

With the entrails of the foe! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

2 0 Reply
Rose Marie Juan-austin 17 October 2021

A beautiful poem well crafted with a meaningful message. Liked the ultimate stanza.

0 0 Reply
Cheryl Tutaan 10 August 2017

The sad journey of a fly...nice poem to read, thank you. a 10! Cheryl

0 0 Reply
Geeta Radhakrishna Menon 28 March 2017

A fly caught in the entrails of the foe. Sad journey of a fly caught by huge animals like rhinoceros or a bird like the crane.

1 0 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 28 March 2017

Free of air...... thanks for posting....

1 0 Reply
Tom Allport 28 March 2017

a very interesting and descriptive poem of the demise of a fly? ........well penned.

2 0 Reply
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