Poem by Bert Leston Taylor

Ballade of a Moss-Grown Symbol

I much esteem the rubber-stamp cartoons,
    Symbols of paleozoic pedigree --
Age-battered emblems that for moons and
    moons
Have roused my righteous wrath or gurgling
    glee:
Stern Justice with her Scales and Snicker
    snee,
The Horn of Plenty stuffed with plums and
    pears
And hothouse grapes, in wild luxuriancy,
The dear old Paper Cap that Labor wears.

Dear to my heart as dim remembered runes
Of childhood twittered from a nurse s knee.
Are Uncle Sam s  starred Hat and Panta
    loons,
The Ship of State, the Snake of Anarchy,
The smoking stacks of good old Industry,
The tyrant Trust that nought and no one
    spares
All these I cherish, one especially--
The dear old Paper Cap that Labor wears.
Fresh as the dew upon a peck of prunes,
Green as Joe Miller s jocund jeux d' esprit --
So fresh, so green those mossy old lampoons
That never fail to make a hit with me:
The Dinner Pail, the Presidential Bee,
Oblivion s  Chasm, to which the dead one
    fares,
And  rooted like an oak in memory --
The dear old Paper Cap that Labor wears.

Immortal lid, I lift my own to thee!
Tenacious lid, that Time nor dents nor tears!
Symbol encrusted with antiquity! --
The dear old Paper Cap that Labor wears.

1. The Riddle of the Dinosaur
2. The Road to Anywhere
3. Spring in the Shops
4. The Gadder
5. Invocation

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