There was a cow kept in a mead,
(So ancient chronicles have said)
She cropt the grass in peace and quietness,
And chew'd her cud with great sedateness,
Drank freely of the limpid brook,
And look'd as sleek, as Cow could look;
Nor night, nor morning, did she fail,
With richest milk to fill the pail.
Thus did she live, till on a day,
A bawling Bullock came that way,
Some Paine or Godwin of the flock,
Who roar'd Reform, with open throat.
He bawl'd as loud as he was able,
And said, (for beasts still speak in fable)
That she, and all the herd were wrong,
Which he could prove by reason strong;
That being a Steer of feeling mind,
Out of pure pity to his kind,
He'd chose the arduous occupation,
To set to rights the horned nation.
He then began a long discussion,
'Bout equal ' rights and Revolution.
He said the members of her frame,
From heart to hoof, were all the same;
That feet and legs, and back and belly,
Were all of equal use and value;
Nor knew he why the Tail was led
Still by the aristocratic head :
For, tho' the head had ears and eyes,
The tail could better bear off flies,
And far more fit were Rump and Haunches,
Than head and horns, to push down fences;
Nor better was the mouth one grain
Than other parts, which I won't name.
The simple Cow, no better knowing,
Began to listen to his lowing.
Her head grew light, her mind grew restless,
Her food, and easy life, grew tasteless;
No more her head and horns she tho't on,
All now was for the new Tail-doctrine.
Tail-foremost, to the fence she flew,
And to the ground the fence soon threw.
Triumphant now, she went full sail,
Under the conduct of her tail —
O'er rocks and stones, thro' mud and mire,
And spurn'd at all attempts to slay her;
Till on a precipice's brink
Arriv'd — Rump would not stop to think,
But still urg'd on. And down she goes—
A mangled corpse, and food for crows.
An Overview of the Criticism of David Bruce’s “Democracy: A Fable”
This seems to be a relatively obscure work of Bruce's, though the author has received some critical attention, though it seems limited to the 1920s. The articles focused on David Bruce center on his work in the overall genre of early political satire.
In “David Bruce, Federalist Poet of Western Pennsylvania” (1925) Harry R. Warfel claims that "the chief interest of nearly all of the American poets of the post revolutionary period is the political satire" (215). Warful deals with many of Bruce's Hudibrastic satires - including "The Author's Political Opinion" - as part of Bruce's reaction to the Whiskey Rebellion and the overall historical moment.
Meanwhile, in "Dialects on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier" (1928), Claude M. Newlin focuses more on the influence of Scotch-Irish dialects that is shown in Bruce's poetry. He discusses connections between Bruce and more famous poets like Ramsay and Burns.
Thus, the criticism not only seems severely limited in respect to the author, but there doesn't seem to be anything written on this particular poem.
all David Bruce songs all songs from 1798