Poetry month
Apr. 2nd, 2009 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflowerA great many of my very favorite poems are from my early childhood. I was long ago corrupted by the 1954 Childcrafts. The ones with the orange covers and the marvelous illustrations.
This one is from The Wind in the Willows
The Duck's Ditty
by Kenneth Grahame
“All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!
Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!
Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim--
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.
Everyone for what he likes!
We like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!
High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call--
We are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!”*
This one is from The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
“All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!
Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
Yellow feet a-quiver,
Yellow bills all out of sight
Busy in the river!
Slushy green undergrowth
Where the roach swim--
Here we keep our larder,
Cool and full and dim.
Everyone for what he likes!
We like to be
Heads down, tails up,
Dabbling free!
High in the blue above
Swifts whirl and call--
We are down a-dabbling
Up tails all!”*