Poetry Corner
Sep. 21st, 2005 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorous_ettGacked from just about everyone on my f-list. As regular visitors to my journal know, I'm always the last one to do a meme.
If you see this, post your favourite poem in your journal.
I'm not going to post all my favourites, that would take too long. Instead, I'm going to treat you to a poem my Mum used to tell me when I was small, until I got it off by heart. One or two of my friends are of the opinion that this poem warped my fragile little mind... and perhaps it did, but I still like it.
Neither of us know who wrote it. If you know, please drop me a line and tell me who it was.
I give you the tale of Henry, who was eaten by a lion. And serve him right!
O do you know why Henry sleeps,
And why his mourning mother weeps,
And why his weeping mother mourns?
He was unkind to unicorns.
No unicorn with Henry's leave
Could dance upon the lawn at eve,
Or gore the gardener's boy in spring,
Or do the very slightest thing;
No unicorn could safely roar,
Or dash its nose against the door,
Or sit in peace upon the mat
To eat the dog and drink the cat;
Henry would never in the least
Encourage the heraldic beast:
When there were unicorns about,
He went and let the lion out!
The lion, leaping from its chain
And glaring through its tangled mane
Would stand on end, and bark, and bound,
And bite what unicorns it found.
And if the lion bit a lot,
Was Henry sorry? He was not!
What did his jumps betoken? Joy!
He was a bloody-minded boy.
But lo! the unicorn is fleet
And spurns the earth with all its feet!
The lion had to snap and snatch
At tips of tails it couldn't catch.
Returning home in temper bad,
It met the sanguinary lad,
And grasping Henry in its claws,
It placed his legs between its jaws.
"Down, lion, down!" cried Henry, "cease!
My legs immediately release!"
His formidable feline pet
Made no reply, but only ate.
The last words that were ever said
By Henry's disappearing head
In accents of indignant scorn
Were: "I am not a unicorn!"
So now you now why Henry sleeps
And why his mourning mother weeps
And also why she weeps and mourns -
And so be kind to unicorns!
Enjoy!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:01 pm (UTC)::tries to think of childhood poems::
The Cat in the Hat, and The Owl and the Pussycat come to mind. My parents were completely convinced that I knew how to read at the age of two-and-a-half because I'd memorised the entire Cat in the Hat. Then they realised I could only read one book.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:26 pm (UTC)That, M'Dear, Is...
Date: 2005-09-21 05:28 pm (UTC)PS
Date: 2005-09-21 05:29 pm (UTC)Re: PS
Date: 2005-09-21 05:44 pm (UTC)Yes, it does sound like Belloc, doesn't it? That was my first theory - but we have a copy of "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes" at home, and that one wasn't in it.
Have a virtual scroll of rare calligraphy (from the sage of your choice) on me!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 05:47 pm (UTC)I did - though a couple of my friends were shocked to the core that this poem was in it. Never did me any harm...
Sorry to be dense, but what's the gingham dog and the calico cat?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 06:09 pm (UTC)Though it lacks the grand pathos of Harold on 'is 'orse with 'is 'awk in 'is 'and.
It's Alarming I Know All This.
Date: 2005-09-21 07:13 pm (UTC)Thank You.
Date: 2005-09-21 07:15 pm (UTC)Though I'd quite as soon have the kiss, of course.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 08:29 pm (UTC)We need more lions.
Re: It's Alarming I Know All This.
Date: 2005-09-21 08:37 pm (UTC)The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the chimney sat;
'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think?)
Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
...
Next morning, where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole that pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up...
http://www.bonus.com/bonus/nav/scooter/scooterize.htmp?loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebonus%2Ecom%2Fcontour%2FQuotations%2Fhttp%40%40%2Fwww%2Etheotherpages%2Eorg%2Fpoems%2Ffield01%2Ehtml&useragent=Mozilla%2F4%2E0+%28compatible%3B+MSIE+6%2E0%3B+Windows+NT+5%2E0%29&refv=1&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch%2Eyahoo%2Ecom%2Fsearch%3Fp%3D%2522gingham%2Bdog%2Band%2Bcalico%2Bcat%2522%2Bpoem%26ei%3DUTF%2D8%26fr%3DFP%2Dtab%2Dweb%2Dt%26fl%3D0%26x%3Dwrt&entry=bonus&SERVER=www%2Ebonus%2Ecom
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 10:42 pm (UTC)Don't remind me. I can type out most of the "Alice in Wonderland" poems right here, straight from memory (albeit in translation), but can't remember for shit what is planned for tomorrow's lunch.
Or what I am to do in the city, where I plan to go. :(
no subject
Date: 2005-09-22 01:01 am (UTC)Re: It's Alarming I Know All This.
Date: 2005-09-22 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-22 11:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-22 11:44 am (UTC)And I love your pouncing icon!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-22 12:21 pm (UTC)And ooh, new icons! I didn't recognise you for a moment there. Particularly like the wereflamingo.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-22 05:01 pm (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/community/perposterice/8854.html#cutid1
*waves from FA*
Date: 2005-09-27 12:46 am (UTC)Thanks for sharing it, I don't think I would ever have come across it so easily!
*waves back*
Date: 2005-09-27 12:19 pm (UTC)Have friended you to celebrate.
And glad you liked the poem - lions are love.
Re: *waves back*
Date: 2005-09-28 03:17 am (UTC)I _wasn't_ on livejournal until so recently my eyes are still boggling - so your instincts were right.
Speaking of lions,
I had a dream about a lion once, loosely based on that movie "The Ghost and the Darkness" about man-eatin' lions and Michael Douglas.
THIS lion had trapped me outside a building that happened to be filled with lion-hunters, but naturally nobody came out to save me. Before I could move, the lion had enclosed his extremely pointy teeth around my arm.
And for some reason I got up on his head and bore down until I squished him.
Then the lion hunters came pouring out, en masse. Nice going, guys.
And that's what your poem also brought back to my mind. *heh*
But other than that, I always liked lions.