. The choice works of Thomas Hood, in prose and verse. r heels still keeping thee in check ! And yet thou seemst prepared in any case, Tho tluy had lost the race,To win it—by a neck ! That lengthy neck—how like a cranes it looks 1 Art thou the overseer of all the brutes ? Or dost thou browse on tiptop leaves or fruits— Or go a bird-nesting amon;^st the rooks ? Ho A kindly nature caters for all wants ; Thils giving unto thee a neck that stretches, And high food fetches—To some a lung nose, like the elephants ! 276 ODE TO THE CAMELEOPARD. Oh ! hadst thou any organ to thy bellows,To turn thy brea
. The choice works of Thomas Hood, in prose and verse. r heels still keeping thee in check ! And yet thou seemst prepared in any case, Tho tluy had lost the race,To win it—by a neck ! That lengthy neck—how like a cranes it looks 1 Art thou the overseer of all the brutes ? Or dost thou browse on tiptop leaves or fruits— Or go a bird-nesting amon;^st the rooks ? Ho A kindly nature caters for all wants ; Thils giving unto thee a neck that stretches, And high food fetches—To some a lung nose, like the elephants ! 276 ODE TO THE CAMELEOPARD. Oh ! hadst thou any organ to thy bellows,To turn thy breath to speech in human style, What secrets thou mightst tell us,Where now our scientific guesses fail ; For instance of the Nile,Whether those Seven Mouths have any tail ; Mayhap thy luck too,From that high head, as from a lofty hill,Has let thee see the marvellous Timbuctoo—Or drmk of Niger at its infant were the travels of our Major Denham, Or Clapperton, to thine In that same line,If thou couldst only squat thee down and pen em!. African Wreckers. Strange sights, indeed, thou must have overlool{^d|With eyes held ever in such vantage stations !Hast seen, perchance, unhappy white folks cookd,And then made free of negro corporations?Poor wretches saved from castaway three-deckers— By sooty wreckers—From hungry waves to have a loss still drearier,To far e.\ceed the utmost aim of Park—And find , alas ! bi-yond the mark,In the iusiihs of Aincas interior ! ODE TO THE CaMELEOPARD. Live on, Giraffe ! genteelest of raff kind !—Admired by noble, and by royal tongues ! May no pernicious wind,Or English fog, blight thy exotic lungs !Live on in happy peace, altho a rarity,Nor envy thy poor cousins more outrageous Parisian popularity,Wliose very leopard-rash is grown contagious,And worn on gloves and ribbons all about— Alas ! theyll wear him out !So thou shalt take thy sweet diurnal feedsWhen he is stuffd with undigested straw,Sad food that never vis
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