A Random Thought

Another favorite Poem from Silver Pennies

The Elf and the Dormouse
By Oliver Herford

UNDER a toadstool crept a wee Elf,
Out of the rain to shelter himself.
Under the toadstool, sound asleep,
Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.
Trembled the wee Elf, frightened, and yet
Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.
To the next shelter — maybe a mile!
Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile,
Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.
Holding it over him, gaily he flew.
Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse — " Good gracious me!
"Where is my toadstool?" loud he lamented.
And that's how umbrellas first were invented.

How I used to giggle every time I read/recited this poem! I loved it then, I love it now, particularly the line, “Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.” That’s probably the line that introduced me to alliteration. If feels so cool tumbling off the tongue.

A Random Thought

I was thinking about the full moon...and the eclipse last night (which we didn't get to see because of cloud cover) and that got me to trying to remember a poem I used to know as kid. I looked it up (the internet can be sooooo wonderful) and I found it. Not only that, I found the book it was in, a collection of poem edited by Blanche Jennings Thompson. It was the same book I had as a kid. Alas, it is one book from my childhood that did not survive. It was called Silver Pennies.

Here is the poem.

Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be

by Vachel Lindsey

The moon? It is a griffin's egg,

Hatching to-morrow night.

And how the little boys will watch

With shouting and delight

To see him break the shell and stretch

And creep across the sky.

The boys will laugh. The little girls, I fear, may hide and cry.

Yet gentle will the griffin be,

Most decorours and fat,

And walk up the Milky Way

And lap it like a cat.