Classic Poem

CAPUTVI

Yet to man, the upper circle
Of creation, there may haply
Be some profit in thus learning
How the lower classes reason.

Yes, beneath us, in the gloomy
Social ranks of woe and sorrow:
In the dumb, the lower, strata,
Brood resentment, pride and want.

What by right of common custom
And by treatises on Nature
Has for ages been established.
Snouts audacious give the lie to.

And this heresy the old ones
Grimly growl into the young ones,
Till Humanity and Culture
Are imperilled on our planet.

" Children! " grumbles Atta Troll,
As uneasily he tosses
On his bed without a blanket,
" Ours at least shall be the Future!

" Were each bear of my opinion —
Thought the other beasts as I do —
With our forces leagued together,
We should fight and throw the tyrants.

" Then the boar would form alliance
With the horse; in love fraternal,
The proboscis elephantine
Would entwine the ox's horn.

" Bears and wolves of every colour,
Goats and monkeys, even hares,
For a time would work in common,
And assured would be our triumph.

" What we need to-day is union —
Union! Union! Disunited,
They enslave us; but, united,
We shall overreach the despots.

" Union! Union! And we conquer;
Vile monopoly shall crumble!
We will found a righteous kingdom
Of the animals at last;

" On the basis we shall found it,
That God's creatures all are equal,
Irrespective of their odour,
Or their hide, or their religion.

" Strict equality! Each donkey
To the highest post entitled;
On the other hand the lion
To the mill the sack shall carry.

" And the dog, although I grant you
He's a fawning servile cur,
Seeing men so long have used him
As no better than a dog,

" Shall regain in our Republic
His inalienable rights,
And, I trust, will soon recover
His nobility of being.

" Yea, the very Jews shall share in
Civic rights, and taste of freedom:
By the law shall be acknowledged
On a par with other mammals.

" Only dancing in the market
For the Jews shall be illegal;
I but mention this amendment
In the interests of art.

" For the race is sadly lacking
In a sense of style: in motion
The severe and plastic misses:
And might spoil the public taste. "