I am a kind of farthing dip, Unfriendly to the nose and eyes; A blue-behinded ape, I skip Upon the trees of Paradise. At mankind's feast, I take my place In solemn, sanctimonious state, And have the air of saying grace While I defile the dinner plate. I am 'the smiler with the knife,' The battener upon garbage, I -- Dear Heaven, with such a rancid life, Were it not better far to die? Yet still, about the human pale, I love to scamper, love to race, To swing by my irreverent tail All over the most holy place; And when at length, some golden day, The unfailing sportsman, aiming at, Shall bag, me -- all the world shall say: @3Thank God, and there's an end of that!@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHEN ON THE MARGE OF EVENING by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY DISARMAMENT by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE OPTIMIST AND THE PESSIMIST; A DIALOGUE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) NIGHTFALL by FLORENCE ASHLEY BELLER SORROW AND JOY by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES HIS NAME WAS KEKO by THEODORE BRIDGMAN BATTERSEA PARK by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB THE LITTLE FRIEND; WRITTEN IN THE BOOK WHICH SHE MADE & SENT by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |