And as he rears defiance

 Shepherd, seize stakes, seize stones!

  And as he rears defiance, and puffs out

  A hissing throat, down with him! see how low

  That cowering crest is vailed in flight, the while,

  His midmost coils and final sweep of tail

  Relaxing, the last fold drags lingering spires.

  Then that vile worm that in Calabrian glades

  Uprears his breast, and wreathes a scaly back,

  His length of belly pied with mighty spots-

  While from their founts gush any streams, while yet

  With showers of Spring and rainy south-winds earth

  Is moistened, lo! he haunts the pools, and here

  Housed in the banks, with fish and chattering frogs

  Crams the black void of his insatiate maw.

  Soon as the fens are parched, and earth with heat

  Is gaping, forth he darts into the dry,

  Rolls eyes of fire and rages through the fields,

  Furious from thirst and by the drought dismayed.