Ogden Nash

The Solitary Huntsman

The solitary huntsman
   No coat of pink doth wear,
But midnight black from cap to spur
   Upon his midnight mare.
He drones a tuneless jingle
   In lieu of tally-ho:
“I’ll catch a fox
   And put him in a box
       And never let him go.”

The solitary huntsman,
   He follows silent hounds.
No horn proclaims his joyless sport,
   And never a hoofbeat sounds.
His hundred hounds, his thousands,
   Their master’s will they know:
To catch a fox
   And put him in a box
       And never let him go.

For all the fox’s doubling
   They track him to his den.
The chase may fill a morning,
   Or threescore years and ten.
The huntsman never sated
   Screaks to his saddlebow,
“I’ll catch another fox
   And put him in a box
       And never let him go.”