At length he came back, and with him a She, 20 And the acorn was grown to a tall oak tree. They built them a nest in the topmost bough, And young ones they had, and were happy enow. But soon came a Woodman in leathern guise, His brow, like a pent-house, hung over his eyes. 25 He'd an axe in his hand, not a word he spoke, But with many a hem! and a sturdy stroke, At length he brought down the poor Raven's own oak. His young ones were killed; for they could not depart, And their mother did die of a broken heart. 30 The boughs from the trunk the Woodman did sever; And they floated it down on the course of the river. They sawed it in planks, and its bark they did strip, And with this tree and others they made a good ship. The ship, it was launched; but in sight of the land 35 Such a storm there did rise as no ship could withstand. It bulged on a rock, and the waves rush'd in fast: Round and round flew the raven, and cawed to the blast. He heard the last shriek of the perishing souls-- See! see! o'er the topmast the mad water rolls! 40 Right glad was the Raven, and off he went fleet, And Death riding home on a cloud he did meet, And he thank'd him again and again for this treat: They had taken his all, and REVENGE IT WAS SWEET! 1797. FOOTNOTES: [169:1] First published in the _Morning Post_, March 10, 1798 (with an introductory letter, _vide infra_): included (with the letter, and except line 15 the same text) in the _Annual Anthology_, 1800, in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817 (pp. vi-viii), 1828, 1829, and 1834. [To the editor of the _Morning Post_.] 'Sir,--I am not absolutely certain that the following Poem was written by EDMUND SPENSER, and found by an Angler buried in a fishing-box:-- 'Under the foot of Mole, that mountain hoar, Mid the green alders, by the Mulla's shore.' But a learned Antiquarian of my acquaintance has given it as his opinion that it resembles SPENSER'S minor Poems as nearly as Vortigern and Rowena the Tragedies of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.--The Poem must be read in _recitative_, in the same manner as the Aegloga Secunda of the Shepherd's Calendar. CUDDY.' _M. P._, _An. Anth._ [170:1] Seventeen or eighteen years ago an artist of some celebrity was so pleased with this doggerel that he amused himself with the thought of making a Child's Picture Book of it; but he could not hit on a picture for these four lines. I suggested a _Round-about_ with four seats, and the four seasons, as Children, with Time for the shew-man. Footnote, _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817. LINENOTES: