The Sun and the Wind

Phebus and Boreas from on high

Upon the road a traveller spy,

Wearing a cloak for fear of rain.

Says Boreas, “his precaution’s vain

’Gainst me, I’ll show you for a joke

How soon I’ll make him quit his cloak.”

“Come on,” says Phebus, “let us see

Who best succeeds, or you or me.”

The wind to blow so fierce began,

He almost had upset his man;

But still his cloak, for all his roar,

Was wrapp’d more closely than before.

When Boreas what he could had done,

“Now for my trial,” says the Sun,

And with his beams so warm’d the air,

The man his mantle could not bear,

But open’d first, then threw aside.

Learn hence, unbending sons of pride

Persuasive manners will prevail,

When menaces and bluster fail.