Oliver Herford

The Puppy cannot mew or talk,
He has a funny kind of walk,
His tail is difficult to wag
And that’s what makes him walk zigzag.
...

MY child, the Duck-billed Platypus
A sad example sets for us:
From him we learn how Indecision
Of character provokes Derision.
...

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
...

Under a toadstool crept a wee Elf,
Out of the rain to shelter himself.

Under the toadstool, sound asleep,
...

CHILDREN, behold the Chimpanzee:
He sits on the ancestral tree
From which we sprang in ages gone.
...

IF this little world to-night
Suddenly should fall through space
In a hissing, headlong flight,
Shrivelling from off its face,
...

The Gentle Milk Jug blue and white
I love with all my soul,
She pours herself with all her might
...

ALAS, my Child, where is the Pen
That can do Justice to the Hen?
Like Royalty, She goes her way,
...

The Moon is like a big round cheese
That shines above the garden trees,
And like a cheese grows less each night,
...

THE Pen-guin sits up-on the shore
And loves the lit-tle fish to bore;
He has one en-er-vat-ing joke
That would a very Saint provoke:
...

The Dog is black or white or brown
And sometimes spotted like a clown.
He loves to make a foolish noise
And Human Company enjoys.
...

My Bed is like a little Bark,
The hatch is battened down,
And in the basket cabin dark
I sail away from Town.
...

THIS, Children, is the famed Mon-goos.
He has an ap-pe-tite ab-struse:
Strange to re-late, this crea-ture takes
...

THE Cow is too well known, I fear,
To need an introduction here.
If She should vanish from earth's face
It would be hard to fill her place;
...

There’s a funny little kitten that tries to look like me,
But though I’m round and fluffy, he’s as flat as flat can be;
...

When Human Folk at Table eat,
A Kitten must not mew for meat,
Or jump to grab it from the Dish,
...

The Lion does not move at all,
Winter or Summer, Spring or Fall,
He does not even stretch or yawn,
...

Watching a ball on the end of a string,
Watching it swing back and to,
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
...

E is for Edison, making believe
He's invented a clever contrivance for Eve,
Who complained that she never could laugh in her sleeve.
...

When I grow up I mean to be
A Lion large and fierce to see.
I’ll mew so loud that Cook in fright
Will give me all the cream in sight.
...