The Beast

Here is a tale for sportsmen when at table: There was a boar, like that Atalanta hunted, Who gorged and snored and, unmolested, grunted, His fat way through the world as such able. Huge-jowled and paunched and porcine-limbed and marrowed, King of his kind, deep in his lair he squatted, And round him fames of many maidens rotted Where Licence whelped and Lust her monsters farrowed. There came a damsel, like the one in Spenser, A Britomart, as sorcerous as Circe, Who pierced him with a tract, her spear, and ended The beast's career. Made him a man; a censor Of public morals; arbiter of mercy; And led him by the nose and called him splendid.