Classic Poem

An elegant Elephant walked one day
Beside the wondering sea,
And a Pansy-Blossom he met by the way,
A Puritan saint was she.

She bowed with an indescribable air,
And murmured, “What repose!
I love you for your wonderful hair
And Aubrey Beardsley clo'es!”

Now, delicate breeding had made him shy,
As you well may understand;
So the startled eye-glass fell from his eye,
As he clasped her by the hand.

He blushed to the tips of his diffident ears,
But never a word said he,
And the Pansy-Blossom saw, through her tears,
That it certainly could not be.

“But why?” she whispered, and wailed, “But why?”
—And he heard as in a dream—
“I know of a beautiful spot, near by,
Where the crocodile keeps ice-cream.

“I know of a wilderness just divine,
Where I could love you so!”
He only said—“The idea is fine,
But I really could not go!”

For he thought, you see, of his wife and child,
And she of her aged mother;
They thought till they felt quite weird and wild;
Then—said “Good-by” to each other.