Nonsense Books Part 31

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sheet Music--The Pelicans]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE PELICAN CHORUS.

King and Queen of the Pelicans we; No other Birds so grand we see!

None but we have feet like fins!

With lovely leathery throats and chins!

Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no Birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican Jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still

We live on the Nile. The Nile we love.

By night we sleep on the cliffs above; By day we fish, and at eve we stand On long bare islands of yellow sand.

And when the sun sinks slowly down, And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,

Where the purple river rolls fast and dim And the Ivory Ibis starlike skim, Wing to wing we dance around, Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound, Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought; And this is the song we nightly snort,-- Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no Birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still!

Last year came out our Daughter Dell, And all the Birds received her well.

To do her honor a feast we made For every bird that can swim or wade,-- Herons and Gulls, and Cormorants black, Cranes, and Flamingoes with scarlet back, Plovers and Storks, and Geese in clouds, Swans and Dilberry Ducks in crowds: Thousands of Birds in wondrous flight!

They ate and drank and danced all night, And echoing back from the rocks you heard Mult.i.tude-echoes from Bird and Bird,-- Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no Birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still!

Yes, they came; and among the rest The King of the Cranes all grandly dressed.

Such a lovely tail! Its feathers float Between the ends of his blue dress-coat; With pea-green trowsers all so neat, And a delicate frill to hide his feet (For though no one speaks of it, every one knows He has got no webs between his toes).

As soon as he saw our Daughter Dell, In violent love that Crane King fell,-- On seeing her waddling form so fair, With a wreath of shrimps in her short white hair.

And before the end of the next long day Our Dell had given her heart away; For the King of the Cranes had won that heart With a Crocodile's egg and a large fish-tart.

She vowed to marry the King of the Cranes, Leaving the Nile for stranger plains; And away they flew in a gathering crowd Of endless birds in a lengthening cloud.

Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no Birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still!

And far away in the twilight sky We heard them singing a lessening cry,-- Farther and farther, till out of sight, And we stood alone in the silent night!

Often since, in the nights of June, We sit on the sand and watch the moon,--

She has gone to the great Gromboolian Plain, And we probably never shall meet again!

Oft, in the long still nights of June, We sit on the rocks and watch the moon,-- She dwells by the streams of the Chankly Bore.

And we probably never shall see her more.

Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!

We think no Birds so happy as we!

Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!

We think so then, and we thought so still!

[NOTE.--The Air of this and the following Song by Edward Lear; the Arrangement for the Piano by Professor Pome, of San Remo, Italy.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sheet Music--The Yonghy Bonghy B]

THE COURTs.h.i.+P OF THE YONGHY-BONGHY-B.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

I.

On the Coast of Coromandel Where the early pumpkins blow, In the middle of the woods Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.

Two old chairs, and half a candle, One old jug without a handle,-- These were all his worldly goods: In the middle of the woods, These were all the worldly goods Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-B, Of the Yonghy-Bonghy B.

II.

Once, among the Bong-trees walking Where the early pumpkins blow, To a little heap of stones Came the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.

There he heard a Lady talking, To some milk-white Hens of Dorking,-- "'Tis the Lady Jingly Jones!

On that little heap of stones Sits the Lady Jingly Jones!"

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B, Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.

III.

"Lady Jingly! Lady Jingly!

Sitting where the pumpkins blow, Will you come and be my wife?"

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.

"I am tired of living singly-- On this coast so wild and s.h.i.+ngly,-- I'm a-weary of my life; If you'll come and be my wife, Quite serene would be my life!"

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B, Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.

IV.

"On this Coast of Coromandel Shrimps and watercresses grow, Prawns are plentiful and cheap,"

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.

"You shall have my chairs and candle, And my jug without a handle!

Gaze upon the rolling deep (Fish is plentiful and cheap); As the sea, my love is deep!"

Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B, Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-B.