| She’s
supple, smart, light on her toes, And gains momentum as she goes. She may start small as weedy mouse, But soon she’ll overtop the house, Till, though her feet in muck may stand, Her head's up in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land. Rumour is fast. Her huge black wings Hide fearful eyes, a tongue that stings, Lungs that can bellow till they burst And ears fine-tuned to hear the worst. By night she’ll hiss round that odd place Nor earth nor sky (What? Cyberspace?) And through the small hours she will keep Alert and growing- she won’t sleep. Come daylight she’ll observe with malice Events in cottage and in palace. Then soon great cities shake in fear At the enormities they hear, And shudder when they taste the brew In which she’s mixed the false and true. |
Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes,
Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum:
mobilitate viget virisque adquirit eundo,
parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras
ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit.
illam Terra parens ira inritata deorum
extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem
progenuit pedibus celerem et pernicibus
alis,
monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui quot sunt corpore plumae,
tot vigiles oculi subter (mirabile dictu),
tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit auris.
nocte volat caeli medio terraeque per umbram
stridens, nec dulci declinat lumina
somno;
luce sedet custos aut summi culmine tecti
turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbes,
tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri.
