Nursery & Humorous Rhymes

 

I. Nursery & Humorous Rhymes

① THE KITTY-CAT BIRD

(a) The Kitty-Cat Bird, he sat on a fence. Said the wren, "Your song isn't worth 10¢. You're a fake, you're a fraud, you're a horrid pretense!" —Said the wren to the Kitty-Cat Bird.

(b) "You've too many tunes, and none of them good: I wish you would act like a bird really should, Or stay by yourself down deep in the wood," —Said the wren to the Kitty-Cat Bird.

(c) "You mew like a cat, you grate like a jay: You squeak like a mouse that's lost in the hay, I wouldn't be you for even a day," —Said the wren to the Kitty-Cat Bird.

(d) The Kitty-Cat Bird, he moped and cried. Then a real cat came with a mouth so wide, That the Kitty-Cat Bird just hopped inside. "At last I'm myself!" —and he up and died. —Did the Kitty-the-Kitty-Cat Bird.

(e) You'd better not laugh; and don't say, "Pooh!" Until you have thought this sad tale through: Be sure that whatever you are is you— Or you'll end like the Kitty-Cat Bird.

② THE WHALE

(a) There was a monstrous whale: He had no skin, he had no tail. When he tried to spout, that great big luffer, The best he could do was jiggle his bluffer.

③ THE YAK

(a) There was a most odious yak Who took only toads on his back: If you asked for a ride, He would act very snide, And go humping off, yickety-yak.

④ THE DONKEY

(a) I had a donkey, that was all right, But he always wanted to fly my kite; Everytime I let him, the string would break. Your donkey is better behaved, I trust.

⑤ THE CEILING

(a) Suppose the ceiling went outside And then caught cold and up and died? The only thing we'd have for proof That he was gone, would be the roof; I think it would be most revealing To find out how the ceiling’s feeling.

⑥ THE CHAIR

(a) A funny thing about a chair: You hardly ever think it’s there. To know a chair is really it, You sometimes have to go and sit.

⑦ MYRTLE

(a) There once was a girl named Myrtle Who, strangely enough, was a turtle: She was mad as a hare, She could growl like a bear,— O nobody understood Myrtle!

(b) She would sit with a book on her knees,— My poetry-book, if you please,— She'd rant and she'd roar: "This stuff is bore! Why I could do better With only ONE letter,— These poets, they write like I sneeze!"

⑧ MYRTLE’S COUSIN

(a) And then there was Myrtle’s cousin, Who always did things by the dozen; She would eat at one glup Boiled eggs from a cup,— Oh that cousin! Her manners! At lunches!

(d) She'd dunk and she'd gubble: She was so much trouble; And then without even a spoon, She'd muddle the whole afternoon What her friends couldn't eat at those lunches.

⑨ GOO-GIRL

(a) Poor Myrtle would sigh, "Sweet my coz, The things you do, nobody does: Putting egg in your shoe And then making goo, Which, with slobbers and snorts, You drink up in quarts; And that gravy and fat All over your hat,— How did you do that? When you slurp and go, Poof! The cat runs for a roof Clear under the chair; And your friends, —how they stare! The mere mention of soups Makes them huddle in groups,— And they'll soon stay away in great bunches!"

⑩ THE GNU

(a) There's this to remember about the Gnu: He closely resembles—but I can't tell you!

II. Previously Uncollected Poems

① LIGHT POEM

(a) Wren-song in trellis; a light ecstasy of butterflies courting, Nudging and tickling of ants and spiders, Flutter of wings and seeds quaking, Little crabs slipping into watery craters— All that diving and pitching and swooping.

(b) Liquids pursue me, notes and tremors: I am undone by the gurgle of babies and pitchers, A dried stalk in a welter of sinuous grasses, Wanting the quiet of old wood or stone without water.

② MEDITATION IN HYDROTHERAPY

(a) Six hours a day I lay me down Within this tub but cannot drown. (b) The ice cap at my rigid neck Has served to keep me with the quick. (c) This water, heated like my blood, Refits me for the true and good. (d) Within this primal element The flesh is willing to repent. (e) I do not laugh; I do not cry; I'm sweating out the will to die. (f) My past is sliding down the drain; I soon be myself again.

③ LINES UPON LEAVING A SANITARIUM

(a) Self-contemplation is a curse That makes an old confusion worse. (b) Recumbency is unrefined And leads to errors in the mind. (c) Long gazing at the ceiling will In time induce a mental ill. (d) The mirror tells some truth, but not Enough to merit constant thought. (e) He who himself begins to loathe Grows sick in flesh and spirit both. (f) Dissection is a virtue when It operates on other men.

④ SONG

1(a) This fair parcel of summer's Asleep in her skin, A lark-sweet lover if ever there was. The fountain Hangs by its hair; The water is busy In the place of beautiful stones. To the north of a mouth I lie, Hearing a crass babble of birds. (b) To find that, like a fish, What the fat leaves have,— How else, meadow-shape?

2(a) That day we took from the angels: Light stayed all night, Rocking the flotsam; The sea barked in its caves. I sang to the straw, The likeliest gander alive. (b) How fast the winsome escapes! I saw in my last sleep The stumpiest country of ourselves. In the soft slack of a neck I slept. Her arms made a summer. (c) Where's the bridge of dancing children? The edge is what we have. In the grey otherwise, The instant gathers. I'm still, Still as the wind's center.

III. Additional Short Lyrics & Elegies

⑥ THE INN OF EARTH

(a) I came to the crowded inn of earth, And called for a cup of wine, But the Host went by with averted eye From a thirst as keen as mine.

(b) I sat down with weariness And asked a bit of bread, But the Host went by with averted eye And never a word he said.

(c) While always from the outer night The waiting souls came in With stifled cries of sharp surprise At all the light and din.

(d) "Then give me a bed to sleep," I said, "For midnight comes apace"— But the Host went by with averted eye And I never saw his face.

(e) "Since there is neither food nor rest, I go where I fared before"— But the Host went by with averted eye And barred the outer door.

⑦ THE MOTHER OF A POET

(Sections (a) through (g) cover the birth, childhood, and eventual "flight" of the poet's spirit, emphasizing the mother's gentle nature and her inability to quiet the "strong wind-driven sea" of his talent.)

⑧ AN MEMORIAM F.O.B.

(a) You go a long and lovely journey; For all the stars, like burning dew, Are luminous and living footprints Of souls adventurous as you.

⑨ TWILIGHT

The stately tragedy of dusk Drew to its perfect close. The virginal white evening star Sank, and the red moon rose.

⑩ SWALLOW FLIGHT

(a) I love my hour of wind and light, I love men’s faces and their eyes, I love my spirit’s veering flight Like swallows under evening skies.

⑪ THOUGHTS

(a) When I can make my thoughts come forth To walk like ladies up and down, Each one puts on before the glass Her most becoming hat and gown.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(4) NIGHTFALL

  ​ (a) We will never walk again As we used to walk at night, Watching our shadows lengthen Under the gold street-light When the snow was new and white. ​ (b) We will never walk again Slowly, we too, In spring, when the park is sweet With midnight and with dew, And the passers-by are few. ​ (c) I sit and think of it all, Out in the twilight dim, — A street-piano cries And stars come out in the skies. ​(5) IT IS NOT A WORD ​ (a) It is not a word spoken, Few words are said; Not even a look of the eyes, Nor a bend of the head. ​But only a hush of the heart That has too much to keep, Only memories waking That sleep so light a sleep. ​(6) MY HEART IS HEAVY ​ (a) My heart is heavy with many a song Like ripe fruit bearing down the tree, But I can never give you one — My songs do not belong to me. ​ (b) Yet in the evening, in the dusk When moths go to and fro, In the gray hour if the fruit has fallen, Take it, no one will know. ​(7) THE NIGHTS REMEMBE...
Read more

1. SLOW SEASON

  (a) The ravages of wind and rain are healed. The haze of harvest drifts along the field Until clear eyes put on the look of sleep. (b) The garden spider weaves a silken pear To keep inclement weather from its young. Straight from the oak, the gossamer is hung. At dusk our slow breath thickens on the air. (c) Lost hues of birds the trees take as their own. Long since, bronze wheat was gathered into sheaves. The walker trudges ankle-deep in leaves; The feather of the milkweed flutters down. (d) The shoots of spring have mellowed with the year. Buds, long unsealed, obscure the narrow lane. The blood slows trance-like in the altered vein; Our vernal wisdom moves through ripe to sere. 2. MID-COUNTRY BLOW (a) All night and all day the wind roared in the trees Until I could think there were waves rolling high as my bedroom floor; When I stood at the window, an elm bough swept to my knees; The blue spruce lashed like a surf at the doo r. (b) The second dawn I could not have believed; ...
Read more

Poems of Walter de la Mare, 1873-1956

 Selected from Collected Poems 1901-1918, Vol II: Songs of Childhood, Peacock Pie , 1920, unless otherwise noted. We compiled a brief biography of de la Mare for you. Click here to read it. Purchase AO's Volume 2 poetry collection, which includes de la Mare, Field, Riley, and Rossetti in paperback or Kindle ( $amzn ) ( K ) 01. The Horseman I heard a horseman    Ride over the hill; The moon shone clear, The night was still; His helm was silver,    And pale was he; And the horse he rode    Was of ivory. 02. Up and Down Down the Hill of Ludgate,    Up the Hill of Fleet, To and fro and East and West    With people flows the street; Even the King of England    On Temple Bar must beat For leave to ride to Ludgate    Down the Hill of Fleet. 03. Mrs. Earth Mrs. Earth makes silver black,    Mrs. Earth makes iron red But Mrs. Earth can not st...
Read more