Poem by Edward Lear

* * *

Cold are the crabs that crawl on yonder hills,
Colder the cucumbers that grow beneath,
And colder still the brazen chops that wreathe
The tedious gloom of philosophic pills!
For when the tardy film of nectar fills
The simple bowls of demons and of men,
There lurks the feeble mouse, the homely hen,
And there the porcupine with all her quills.
Yet much remains - to weave a solemn strain
That lingering sadly - slowly dies away,
Daily departing with departing day
A pea-green gamut on a distant plain
When wily walrusses in congresses meet -
Such such is life.

1. There was an Old Person of Leeds
2. There was an Old Man with a gong
3. There was an Old Man of the Isles
4. There was an Old Person of Ischia
5. There was an Old Man in a boat

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