THE SHE KING; OR, THE BOOK OF ANCIENT POETRY

236 THE BOOK OF POETRY. [PART II.
Stript of branch, and leaf, that tree
Is the image true of me.
Sad my heart! I'm left alone,
Unbefriended and unknown.
6 See the hare for mercy crave !
One steps in its life to save.
When a corpse unburied lies,
Some one straight a grave supplies.
Callous monarch, all our woes
Ne'er wake thy compunction's throes.
Sad my heart beneath thy frown,
And my tears fall ceaseless down !
7 Slanders vile the king believes ;
Them as pledge-cup he receives.
Truthful judgment he denies,
And to stifle kindness tries.
Trees are felled where helps the strain,
Faggots cleft along the grain.
Leaves our king the guilty free,
While he guilt imputes to me.
8 Men will climb the greatest height;
Deepest springs their search invite.
O'er his words the king should watch;
Ears are set each word to catch.
Leave my dam, ye slanderers base; **
Move not basket from its place.
Vainly thus, despised, I moan;
Dark my future, though unknown !
iv.
The Keaau yen ; narrative, and allusive, with the metaphorical elempnt
perhaps here and thera. SOME ONE, SUFFERING FKOM THE KING
THROUGH SLANDER, APPEALS TO HEAVEN, DWELLS ON THE NATURE
AND EVIL OF SLANDER, AND EXPRESSES HIS DETESTATION OF AND
COSTEJIPT FOR THE SLANDERERS.
" Covenants (st. S) " were very common in the period of Chinese his
tory to which all these odes refer. Great men in the same State, and of
different States, made covenants together, for the sake of peace and
friendship, and the pursuit of common ohjects. Here we have the king
covenanting, as if he were not more powerful than his princes.
BE V. iv.] THE BOOK OF POETKY. 237
From the last stanza it would appear that the writer had some par
ticular persons, living probably near the Ho, in view ; unless 11. 1—1 be
taken metaphorically.
1 O vast and distant Heaven, whom we
Father and mother call, on thee
I cry. Say why these ills on me
Excessive fall.
Oppressive, vast, my misery,
Though guiltless all!
2 The first small lie contains the rest.
When slanders fill onr monarch's breast,
Ills grow, and never are redressed.
Would he but trust
The good, wrongs soon must be redressed.
I know they must.
3 His frequent covenants show him weak.
Wrongs grow from cozening words they speak.
He trusts the rogues that lie and sneak,
And make things worse.
Their duties shirked, their words so meek
Prove but a curse.
4 With the great work of some great mind;—
A temple by true king designed,
Or plans by sagest men outlined,
Pm in a fog.
Round common schemes my way I wind,
Like hare and dog.
5 As timber soft in carver's hand
Assumes the shape he may command,
So common speech to understand,
I well may claim.
Those talkers, flowing, artful, grand,
Are sons of shame.
6 And who are they ? On yonder stream
They dwell; and void of strength they seem.
From men so bloated who would dream
Of martial force ?
Both they and theirs may madly scheme,
And fare the worse !