RIC-0205 Discovering Poetry
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Camel Ride<br />
Camel Ride is written in the style of an old French ballade - not to be confused with the<br />
English ballad. The ballade was popular at the end of the 19th century and the topic was<br />
usually light-hearted, with the last line of each stanza repeated. In this modern ballade,<br />
the camel rider is alone and isolated but doesn’t seem too worried about it.<br />
Camel Ride<br />
I don’t know where I’m going<br />
I’ll only know when I’ve been<br />
The landscape stretches endless and bare<br />
With sand as the dominant theme<br />
I’d like to say I own the world<br />
But it’s shared with another mammal<br />
A lumpy bumpy mug-a-wumpy<br />
Frumpy galumpy camel<br />
It was a challenge—I must have been mad!<br />
They said I’d be there by dusk<br />
So I’m here with a compass, a flask and a beast<br />
That smells of sweat and musk<br />
We’re under a hot and blazing sun<br />
And my skin is baked to enamel<br />
On a lumpy bumpy mug-a-wumpy<br />
Grumpy humpy camel<br />
They said that the camel would know the way<br />
That he’d amble along till we’re there<br />
At this pace it’s going to take more than a day<br />
And we could be lost anywhere<br />
How I’ll dismount I haven’t a clue<br />
He needs his instructions in Tamil<br />
This dumpy frumpy mind-your-bumpy!<br />
Humpy galumpy camel<br />
©R.I.C. Publications<br />
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‘Keep travelling nor-nor-east,’ they said<br />
They’d be following right behind me<br />
But I can’t see anything else for dust<br />
They’re probably having tea<br />
And I’m all alone in a sandy world<br />
As I lurch along in the saddle<br />
On a lumpy bumpy mug-a-wumpy<br />
Grumpy galumpy camel<br />
R.I.C. Publications www.ricgroup.com.au 18 <strong>Discovering</strong> <strong>Poetry</strong><br />
ISBN 978-1-86311-834-7
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