Of good counsel, wise hints--"where the trap lurks, walk warily--
Squeeze the fruit to the core ere you count on the juice!
For the graft may fail, shift, wax, change colour, wane, vary, lie--"
You were cautious, God knows--to what use?


IX

This crab's wiser, it strikes me--no twist but implies life--
Not a curl but's so fit you could find none fitter--
For the brute from its brutehood looks up thus and eyes life--
Stoop your soul down and listen, you'll hear it twitter,
Laughing lightly,--my crab's life's the wise life!


X

Those who've read S. T. Coleridge remember how Sammy sighs
To his pensive (I think he says) Sara--"most soothing-sweet"--
Crab's bulk's less (look!) than man's--yet (quoth Cancer) I am my size,
And my bulk's girth contents me! Man's maw (see?) craves two things--
wheat
And flesh likewise--man's gluttonous--damn his eyes!


XI

Crab's content with crab's provender: crab's love, if soothing,
Is no sweeter than pincers are soft--and a new sickle
Cuts no sharper than crab's claws nip, keen as boar's toothing!