For angling-rod he took a sturdy oake;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hooke was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
The hook was baited with a dragon's tale,—
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.

Compare | "For angling rod he took a sturdy oak; For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;... His hook was baited with a dragon's tail,— And then on rock he stood to bob for whale." | From The Mock Romance, a rhapsody attached to The Loves of Hero and Leander, published in London in 1653 and 1677, republished in Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 173; William Barker Daniel, Supplement to Rural Sports (1813), p. 57. | "His angle-rod made of a sturdy oak; His line, a cable which in storms ne'er broke; His hook he baited with a dragon’s tail,— And sat upon a rock, and bobb'd for whale" | William King (1663–1712), Upon a Giant’s Angling (in Chalmers's British Poets, ascribed to King).