George Crabbe
The Parish Register
「1807」Reverend George Crabbe, The Parish Register in Poems (London, 1807; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).
Here his poor Bird, th’ inhuman Cocker brings,
Arms his hard heel, and clips his golden wings;
With spicy food, th’ impatient spirit feeds,
And shouts and curses as the battle bleeds:
Struck through the brain, deprived of both his eyes,
The vanquish’d bird must combat till he dies;
Must faintly peck at his victorious foe,
And real and stagger at each feeble blow;
When fall’n, the savage grasps his dabbled plumes,
His blood-stain’d arms, for other deaths assumes;
And dams the Craven-fowl, that lost his stake,
And only bled and perish’d for his sake. (44)
