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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TIT FOR TAT by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: HAVE YOU BEEN CATCHING OF FISH, TOM NODDY?
Last Line: TILL YOU ARE COOKED YOURSELF!
Subject(s): ANIMALS;

Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?
Have you snared a weeping hare?
Have you whistled, 'No Nunny,' and gunned a poor bunny,
Or a blinded bird of the air?

Have you trod like a murderer through the green woods,
Through the dewy deep dingles and glooms,
While every small creature screamed shrill to Dame Nature,
'He comes -- and he comes!'?

Wonder I very much do, Tom Noddy,
If ever, when off you roam,
An Ogre from space will stoop a lean face
And lug you home:

Lug you home over his fence, Tom Noddy,
Of thorn-sticks nine yards high,
With your bent knees strung round his old iron gun
And your head dan-dangling by:

And hang you up stiff on a hook, Tom Noddy,
From a stone-cold pantry shelf,
Whence your eyes will glare in an empty stare,
Till you are cooked yourself!



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