Poem by Katharine Lee Bates

Don't You See?

The day was hotter than words can tell,
So hot the jelly-fish wouldn't jell.
The halibut went all to butter,
And the catfish had only force to utter
A faint sea-mew — aye, though some have doubted,
The carp he capered and the horn-pout pouted.

The sardonic sardine had his sly heart's wish
When the angelfish fought with the paradise fish.
'T was a sight gave the bluefish the blues to see,
But the seal concealed a wicked glee—

The day it went from bad to worse,
Till the pickerel picked the purse-crab's purse.

And the crab felt crabedder yet no doubt,
Because the oyster would n't shell out.
The sculpin would sculp, but had n't a model,
And the coddlefish begged for something to coddle.

But to both the dolphin refused its doll,
Till the whale was oblidged to whale them all.

1. The Sunset, Woven of Soft Lights
2. Tamlane
3. Eavesdropping
4. Anniversary Hymn
5. Children of the War

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