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Seaman: To Mr Alfred Austin
TO MR ALFRED AUSTIN
(In polite imitation of his Jubilee Ode)
The early bird got up and whet his beak;
The early worm arose, an easy prey;
This happened any morning in the week,
Much as to-day.
The moke uplift for joy his hinder hoof;
Shivered the fancy poodle, freshly shorn;
The prodigal upon the attic roof
Mewed to the morn.
His virile note the cock profusely blew;
The beetle trotted down the kitchen tong;
The early bird above alluded to
Was going strong.
All this refers of course to England's isle,
But things were going on across the deep;
In Egypt—take a case—the crocodile
Was sound asleep.
Buzzed the Hymettian bee; sat up in bed
The foreign oyster sipping local drains;
The impious cassowary lay like lead
On Afric's plains.
A-nutting went the nimble chimpanzee;—
And what, you ask me, am I driving at?
Wait on: in less than twenty minutes we
Shall come to that.
The bulbous crowfoot drained his dewy cup;
The saxifrage enjoyed a morning crawl
The ampelopsis slowly sidled up
The garden wall.
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