A farmer built around his cropA wall, and crowned his laborsBy placing glass upon the topTo lacerate his neighbors,Provided they at any timeShould feel disposed the wall to climb. He also drove some iron pegsSecurely in the coping,To tear the bare, defenceless legsOf brats who, upward groping,Might steal, despite the risk of fall,The grapes that […]

Once a turtle, finding plentyIn seclusion to bewitch,Lived a dolce far nienteKind of life within a ditch;Rivers had no charm for him,As he told his wife and daughter,“Though my friends are in the swim,Mud is thicker far than water.” One fine day, as was his habit,He was dozing in the sun,When a young and flippant […]

Once a flock of stately peacocksPromenaded on a green,There were twenty-two or three cocks,Each as proud as seventeen,And a glance, however hasty,Showed their plumage to be tasty;Wheresoever one was placed, heWas a credit to the scene. Now their owner had a daughterWho, when people came to call,Used to say, “You’d reelly oughterSee them peacocks on […]

Once, on a time and in a placeConducive to malaria,There lived a member of the raceOf Rana Temporaria;Or, more concisely still, a frogInhabited a certain bog. A bull of Brobdingnagian size,Too proud for condescension,One morning chanced to cast his eyesUpon the frog I mention;And, being to the manner born,Surveyed him with a lofty scorn. Perceiving […]

O’er a small suburban boroughOnce an eagle used to fly,Making observations thoroughFrom his station in the sky,And presenting the appearanceOf an animated V,Like the gulls that lend coherenceUnto paintings of the sea. Looking downward at a church inThis attractive little shire,He beheld a smallish urchinShooting arrows at the spire;In a spirit of derision,“Look alive!” the […]

Reposing ‘neath some spreading trees,A populistic bumpkinAmused himself by offering theseReflections on a pumpkin:“I would not, if the choice were mine,Grow things like that upon a vine,For how imposing it would beIf pumpkins grew upon a tree.” Like other populists, you’ll note,Of views enthusiastic,He’d learned by heart, and said by roteA creed iconoclastic;And in his […]

Upon the shore, a mile or moreFrom traffic and confusion,An oyster dwelt, because he feltA longing for seclusion;Said he: “I love the stillness ofThis spot. It’s like a cloister.”(These words I quote because, you note,They rhyme so well with oyster.) A prying rat, believing thatShe needed change of diet,In search of such disturbed this much-To-be-desired […]

A woodcutter bought him a gander,Or at least that was what he supposed,As a matter of fact, ’twas a slanderAs a later occurrence disclosed;For they locked the bird up in the garretTo fatten, the while it grew old,And it laid there a twenty-two caratFine egg of the purest of gold! There was much unaffected rejoicingIn […]

A metropolitan rat invitedHis country cousin in town to dine:The country cousin replied, “Delighted.”And signed himself, “Sincerely thine.”The town rat treated the country cousinTo half a dozenKinds of wine. He served him terrapin, kidneys devilled,And roasted partridge, and candied fruit;In Little Neck Clams at first they revelled,And then in Pommery, sec and brut;The country cousin […]

There was an ant, a spinster ant,Whose virtues were so manyThat she became intolerantOf those who hadn’t any:She had a small and frugal mindAnd lived a life ascetic,Nor was her temperament the kindThat’s known as sympathetic. I skip details. Suffice to sayThat, knocking at her wicket,There chanced to come one autumn dayA common garden cricketSo […]

A bulrush stood on a river’s rim,And an oak that grew near byLooked down with cold hauteur on him,And addressed him this way: “Hi!”The rush was a proud patrician, andHe retorted, “Don’t you know,What the veriest boor should understand,That ‘Hi’ is low?” This cutting rebuke the oak ignored.He returned, “My slender friend,I will frankly state […]

A woolly little terrier pupGave vent to yelps distressing,Whereat his mistress took him upAnd soothed him with caressing,And yet he was not in the leastWhat one would call a handsome beast. He might have been a Javanese,He might have been a Jap dog,And also neither one of these,But just a common lapdog,The kind that people […]

A gaunt and relentless wolf, possessedOf a quite insatiable thirst,Once paused at a stream to drink and rest,And found that, bound on a similar quest,A lamb had arrived there first. The lamb was a lamb of a garrulous mindAnd frivolity most extreme:In the fashion common to all his kind,He cantered in front and galloped behind.And […]

A fisher was casting his flies in a brook,According to laws of such sciences,With a patented reel and a patented hookAnd a number of other appliances;And the thirty-fifth cast, which he vowed was the last(It was figured as close as a decimal),Brought suddenly out of the water a troutOf measurements infinitesimal. This fish had a […]

A raven sat upon a tree,And not a word he spoke, forHis beak contained a piece of Brie,Or, maybe, it was Roquefort:We’ll make it any kind you please–At all events, it was a cheese. Beneath the tree’s umbrageous limbA hungry fox sat smiling;He saw the raven watching him,And spoke in words beguiling.“J’admire,” said he, “ton […]

A certain fox had a Grecian noseAnd a beautiful tail. His friendsWere wont to say in a jesting wayA divinity shaped his ends.The fact is sad, but his foxship hadA fault we should all eschew:He was so deceived that he quite believedWhat he heard from friends was true. One day he found in a sheltered […]

A rooster once pursued a wormThat lingered not to brave him,To see his wretched victim squirmA pleasant thrill it gave him;He summoned all his kith and kin,They hastened up by legions,With quaint, expressive gurgles inTheir oesophageal regions. Just then a kind of glimmeringAttracting his attention,The worm became too small a thingFor more than passing mention:The […]

A peasant had a docile bear,A bear of manners pleasant,And all the love she had to spareShe lavished on the peasant:She proved her deep affection plainly(The method was a bit ungainly). The peasant had to dig and delve,And, as his class are apt to,When all the whistles blew at twelveHe ate his lunch, and napped, […]

A Caledonian piperWho was walking on the woldNearly stepped upon a viperRendered torpid by the cold;By the sight of her admonished,He forbore to plant his boot,But he showed he was astonishedBy the way he muttered “Hoot!” Now this simple-minded piperSuch a kindly nature hadThat he lifted up the viperAnd bestowed her in his plaid.“Though the […]

A Boston man an ulster had,An ulster with a cape that fluttered:It smacked his face, and made him mad,And polyglot remarks he uttered:“I bought it at a bargain,” said he,“I’m tired of the thing already.” The wind that chanced to blow that dayWas easterly, and rather strong, too:It loved to see the galling wayThat clothes […]