It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back,
Or lead it about with a string.
The Tartar who dwells on the plains of Thibet
(A desolate region of snow)
Has for centuries made it a nursery pet.
And surely the Tartar should know!
Then tell your papa where the Yak can be got,
And if he is awfully rich
He will buy you the creature – or else he will not.
(I cannot be positive which.)
At such a little tail behind,So large a trunk before.
He never lost his cap, or toreHis stockings or his pinafore:In eating Bread he made no Crumbs,He was extremely fond of sums,To which, however, he preferredThe Parsing of a Latin Word–He sought, when it was within his power,For information twice an hour,And as for finding Mutton-FatUnappatising, far from that!He often, at his Father’s Board,Would beg…
Do you remember an Inn?And the tedding and the spreadingOf the straw for a bedding,And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,And the wine that tasted of tar?And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers(Under the vine of the dark veranda)?Do you remember an Inn, Miranda,Do you remember an Inn?And the cheers…
Were utterly aghast to noteThe facts he would at random quoteOn creatures curious, rare, and wild;And wondering, ask each other:‘An idle little child like this,How is it that he knowsWhat years of close analysisAre powerless to disclose?Our brains are trained, our books are big,And yet we always failTo answer why the Guinea-pigIs born without a…
They fill the street with clamorous cavalcade;The Kings have broken down the Saracen.Singing a great song of the eastern wars,In crimson ships across the sea they came,With crimson sails and diamonded dark oars,That made the Mediterranean flash with flame.And reading how, in that far month, the ranksFormed on the edge of the desert, armoured all,I…
Because a manner rude and wildIs common at your age.The Moral of this priceless work(If rightly understood)Will make you – from a little Turk –Unnaturally good.Do not as evil children do,Who on the slightest groundsWill imitate the Kangaroo,With wild unmeaning bounds:Do not as children badly bred,Who eat like little Hogs,And when they have to go…
