The Jumblies, and Other Nonsense Verses
I.
SHE Sat Upon her Dobie, (1)
To watch the Evening Star,
And all the Punkahs (2) as they passed
Cried, «My! how fair you are!»
Around her bower, with quivering leaves,
The tall Kamsamahs (3) grew,
And Kitmutgars (4) in wild festoons
Hung down from Tchokis (5) blue.
II.
«Please give me a ride on your back!»
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo.
«I would sit quite still, and say nothing but «Quack,»
The whole of the long day through!
And we’d go to the Dee, and the Jelly Bo Lee,
Over the land, and over the sea; —
Please take me a ride! O do!»
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo.
III.
Said the Kangaroo to the Duck,
«This requires some little reflection;
Perhaps on the whole it might bring me luck,
And there seems but one objection,
Which is, if you’ll let me speak so bold,
Your feet are unpleasantly wet and cold,
And would probably give me the roo-
Matiz!» said the Kangaroo.
IV.
Said the Duck, «As I sat on the rocks,
I have thought over that completely,
And I bought four pairs of worsted socks
Which fit my web-feet neatly.
And to keep out the cold I’ve bought a cloak,
And every day a cigar I’ll smoke,
All to follow my own dear true
Love of a Kangaroo!»
V.
Said the Kangaroo, «I’m ready!
All in the moonlight pale;
But to balance me well, dear Duck, sit steady!
And quite at the end of my tail!»
So away they went with a hop and a bound,
And they hopped the whole world three times round;
And who so happy, — O who,
As the Duck and the Kangaroo?
THE CUMMERBUND
AN INDIAN POEM
I
SHE Sat Upon her Dobie, (1)
To watch the Evening Star,
And all the Punkahs (2) as they passed
Cried, «My! how fair you are!»
Around her bower, with quivering leaves,
The tall Kamsamahs (3) grew,
And Kitmutgars (4) in wild festoons
Hung down from Tchokis (5) blue.
II.
Below her home the river rolled
With soft meloobious sound,
Where golden-finned Chuprassies (6] swam,
In myriads circling round.
Above, on tallest trees remote,
Green Ayahs perched alone,
And all night long the Mussak (7] moaned
Its melancholy tone.
III.
And where the purple Nullahs (8] threw
Their branches far and wide,
And silvery Goreewallahs (9] flew
In silence, side by side,
The little Bheesties’ (10] twittering cry
Rose on the fragrant air,
And oft the angry Jampan (11] howled
Deep in his hateful lair.
IV.
She sat upon her Dobie, —
She heard the Nimmak (12] hum, —
When all at once a cry arose:
«The Cummerbund (13] is come!»
In vain she fled; — with open jaws
The angry monster followed,
And so (before assistance came),
That Lady Fair was swallowed.
V.
They sought in vain for even a bone
Respectfully to bury;
They said, «Hers was a dreadful fate!»
(And Echo answered, «Very.»)
They nailed her Dobie to the wall,
Where last her form was seen,
And underneath they wrote these words,
In yellow, blue, and green:—
«Beware, ye Fair! Ye Fair, beware!
Nor sit out late at night,
Lest horrid Cummerbunds should come,
And swallow you outright.»
THE DONG WITH A LUMINOUS NOSE
WHEN awful darkness and silence reign
Over the great Gromboolian plain,
Through the long, long wintry nights; —
When the angry breakers roar,
As they beat on the rocky shore; —
When Storm-clouds brood on the towering heights
Of the Hills on the Chankly Bore:—
Then, through the vast and gloomy dark,
There moves what seems a fiery spark,
A lonely spark with silvery rays
Piercing the coal-black night, —
A meteor strange and bright:—
Hither and thither the vision strays,
A single lurid light.
Slowly it wanders, — pauses, — creeps, —
Anon it sparkles, — flashes and leaps;
And ever as onward it gleaming goes
A light on the Bong-tree stems it throws.
And those who watch at that midnight hour
From Hall or Terrace, or lofty Tower,
Cry, as the wild light passes along, —
«The Dong! — the Dong!
«The wandering Dong through the forest goes!
«The Dong! the Dong!
«The Dong with a luminous Nose!»
Long years ago
The Dong was happy and gay,
Till he fell in love with a Jumbly Girl
Who came to those shores one day.
For the Jumblies came in a Sieve, they did, —
Landing at eve near the Zemmery Fidd
Where the Oblong Oysters grow,
And the rocks are smooth and gray.
And all the woods and the valleys rang
With the Chorus they daily and nightly sang, —
«Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.»
Happily, happily passed those days!
While the cheerful Jumblies staid;
They danced in circlets all night long,
To the plaintive pipe of the lively Dong,
In moonlight, shine, or shade,
For day and night he was always there
By the side of the Jumbly Girl so fair,
With her sky-blue hands, and her sea-green hair.
Till the morning came of that hateful day
When the Jumblies sailed in their Sieve away,
And the Dong was left on the cruel shore
Gazing — gazing for evermore, —
Ever keeping his weary eyes on
That pea-green sail on the far horizon, —
Singing the Jumbly Chorus still
As he sat all day on the grassy hill, —
«Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.»
But when the sun was low in the West,
The Dong arose and said, —
«What little sense I once possessed
Has quite gone out of my head!»
And since that day he wanders still
By lake and forest, marsh and hill,
Singing — «O somewhere, in valley or plain
«Might I find my Jumbly Girl again!
«For ever I’ll seek by lake and shore
«Till I find my Jumbly Girl once more!»
Playing a pipe with silvery squeaks,
Since then his Jumbly Girl he seeks,
And because by night he could not see,
He gathered the bark of the Twangum Tree
On the flowery plain that grows.
And he wove him a wondrous Nose, —
A Nose as strange as a Nose could be!
Of vast proportions and painted red,
And tied with cords to the back of his head.
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