Classic Poem

A Lion to a Woodcutter:
" Your daughter, may I marry her? "
The father, loath and yet suspecting
He'd suffer violence by rejecting,
Agreed by contract with the clause
To draw his teeth and cut his claws —
To which the Lion gave assent
(Love blinding him to the intent).
When next the Beast a-wooing came,
As harmless as a cat and tame,
The Woodcutter he seized an axe
And gave him sundry sudden whacks.

MORAL

A lover, who to win a wife
Surrenders all he's got in life,
Deserves to lose — He's too romantic;
His lack of reason drives me frantic.