“It happen’d once, within a shady wood,

Two twisted snakes he in conjunction view’d,

When with his staff their slimy folds he broke,

And lost his manhood at the fatal stroke.

But, after seven revolving years, he view’d

The self-same serpents in the self-same wood:

‘And if,’ says he, ‘such virtue in you lie,

That he who dares your slimy folds untie