Читать книгу Required Poems for Reading and Memorizing - Unknown - Страница 4

On the top of the Crumpetty Tree

  The Quangle Wangle sat,

But his face you could not see,

  On account of his Beaver Hat.

For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,

With ribbons and bibbons on every side,

And bells, and buttons, and loops, and lace,

So that nobody ever could see the face

  Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.

The Quangle Wangle said

  To himself on the Crumpetty Tree,

"Jam, and jelly, and bread

  Are the best of food for me!

But the longer I live on this Crumpetty Tree

The plainer than ever it seems to me

That very few people come this way

And that life on the whole is far from gay!"

  Said the Quangle Wangle Quee.

But there came to the Crumpetty Tree

  Mr. and Mrs. Canary;

And they said, "Did ever you see

  Any spot so charmingly airy?

May we build a nest on your lovely Hat?

Mr. Quangle Wangle, grant us that!

Oh, please let us come and build a nest

Of whatever material suits you best,

  Mr. Quangle Wangle Quee!"

And besides, to the Crumpetty Tree

  Came the Stork, the Duck, and the Owl;

The Snail and the Bumblebee,

  The Frog and the Fimble Fowl

(The Fimble Fowl, with a corkscrew leg);

And all of them said, "We humbly beg

We may build our homes on your lovely Hat,—

Mr. Quangle Wangle, grant us that!

  Mr. Quangle Wangle Quee!"

And the Golden Grouse came there,

  And the Pobble who has no toes,

And the small Olympian bear,

  And the Dong with a luminous nose.

And the Blue Baboon who played the flute,

And the Orient Calf from the Land of Tute,

And the Attery Squash, and the Bisky Bat,—

All came and built on the lovely Hat

  Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.

And the Quangle Wangle said

  To himself on the Crumpetty Tree,

"When all these creatures move

  What a wonderful noise there'll be!"

And at night by the light of the Mulberry moon

They danced to the Flute of the Blue Baboon,

On the broad green leaves of the Crumpetty Tree,

And all were as happy as happy could be,

  With the Quangle Wangle Quee.

The Pobble who has no toes

  Had once as many as we;

When they said, "Some day you may lose them all,"

  He replied, "Fish fiddle de-dee!"

And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink

Lavender water tinged with pink;

For she said, "The World in general knows

There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"

The Pobble who has no toes

  Swam across the Bristol Channel;

But before he set out he wrapped his nose

  In a piece of scarlet flannel.

For his Aunt Jobiska said, "No harm

Can come to his toes if his nose is warm;

And it's perfectly known that a Pobble's toes

Are safe—provided he minds his nose."

The Pobble swam fast and well,

  And when boats or ships came near him,

He tinkledy-binkledy-winkled a bell

  So that all the world could hear him.

And all the Sailors and Admirals cried,

When they saw him nearing the farther side,

"He has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's

Runcible Cat with crimson whiskers!"

But before he touched the shore—

  The shore of the Bristol Channel,

A sea-green Porpoise carried away

  His wrapper of scarlet flannel.

And when he came to observe his feet,

Formerly garnished with toes so neat,

His face at once became forlorn

On perceiving that all his toes were gone!

And nobody ever knew,

  From that dark day to the present,

Whoso had taken the Pobble's toes,

  In a manner so far from pleasant.

Whether the shrimps or crawfish gray,

Or crafty mermaids stole them away,

Nobody knew; and nobody knows

How the Pobble was robbed of his twice five toes!

The Pobble who has no toes

  Was placed in a friendly Bark,

And they rowed him back and carried him up

  To his Aunt Jobiska's Park.

And she made him a feast at his earnest wish,

Of eggs and buttercups fried with fish;

And she said, "It's a fact the whole world knows,

That Pobbles are happier without their toes."

They went to sea in a sieve, they did;

  In a sieve they went to sea:

In spite of all their friends could say,

On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,

  In a sieve they went to sea.

And when the sieve turned round and round,

And every one cried, "You'll all be drowned!"

They called aloud, "Our sieve ain't big;

But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig:

  In a sieve we'll go to sea!"

    Far and few, far and few,

      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

    Their heads are green and their hands are blue;

      And they went to sea in a sieve.

They sailed away in a sieve, they did,

  In a sieve they sailed so fast,

With only a beautiful pea-green veil

Tied with a ribbon by way of a sail,

  To a small tobacco-pipe mast.

And every one said who saw them go,

"Oh! won't they soon be upset, you know?

For the sky is dark and the voyage is long,

And happen what may, it's extremely wrong

  In a sieve to sail so fast."

    Far and few, far and few,

      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

    Their heads are green and their hands are blue;

      And they went to sea in a sieve.

The water it soon came in, it did;

  The water it soon came in;

So, to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet

In a pinky paper all folded neat;

  And they fastened it down with a pin.

And they passed the night in a crockery-jar;

And each of them said, "How wise we are!

Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,

Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,

  While round in our sieve we spin."

    Far and few, far and few,

      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

    Their heads are green and their hands are blue;

      And they went to sea in a sieve.

And all night long they sailed away;

  And when the sun went down,

They whistled and warbled a moony song

To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,

  In the shade of the mountains brown.

"O Timballoo! How happy we are

When we live in a sieve and a crockery-jar!

And all night long, in the moonlight pale,

We sail away with a pea-green sail

  In the shade of the mountains brown."

    Far and few, far and few,

      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

    Their heads are green and their hands are blue;

      And they went to sea in a sieve.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,—

  To a land all covered with trees:

And they bought an owl and a useful cart,

And a pound of rice, and a cranberry-tart,

  And a hive of silvery bees;

And they bought a pig, and some green jackdaws,

And a lovely monkey with lollipop paws,

And forty bottles of ring-bo-ree,

  And no end of Stilton cheese.

    Far and few, far and few,

      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

    Their heads are green and their hands are blue;

      And they went to sea in a sieve.

And in twenty years they all came back,—

  In twenty years or more;

And every one said, "How tall they've grown!

For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,

  And the hills of the Chankly Bore."

And they drank their health, and gave them a feast

Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;

And every one said, "If we only live,

We, too, will go to sea in a sieve,

  To the hills of the Chankly Bore."

    Far and few, far and few,

      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

    Their heads are green and their hands are blue;

      And they went to sea in a sieve.