Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Frogs

A POOL was once congeal'd with frost; The frogs, in its deep waters lost, No longer dared to croak or spring; But promised, being half asleep, If suffer'd to the air to creep, As very nightingales to sing. A thaw dissolved the ice so strong,— They proudly steer'd themselves along, When landed, squatted on the shore, And croak'd as loudly as before.