Virgil's Respect for Wildlife

 

Prepared to enter, if the gods allowed,

the dreary woodland, silent, dark as death:

a welcome benediction was endowed

by renderings that stole away my breath,

an Eden-like tableau! My Master, font

of god-like sapience, began to speak:

The beasts -- the lion, wolf, and leopard -- want

to live, to share this verdant land, to seek

survival of their young. Admonish those

who savage earth's inhabitants, who claim

dominion over living things. Expose

their souls as destined for eternal flame.

 

How true, I pondered, as my Master ceased

his tirade: passion for the common beast!