With red and kindling eye, the Beast beholds

A living man draw nigh,

And, rising on his folds,

In hungry joy awaits the expected feast,

His mouth half-open, and his teeth unsheath’d.

Then on he sprung, and in his scaly arms

Seiz’d him, and fasten’d on his neck, to suck,

With greedy lips, the warm life-blood: and sure

But for the mighty power of magic charms,

As easily as, in the blithesome hour

Of spring, a child doth crop the meadow flower,