Classic Poem

??H O , for a rhyme of the good old time,
Ere Adam or Eve was born,
When the saurian slept in the sluggish slime
With the unique unicorn.
When the mermaid smiled on the mammoth mild,
And the dodo sang her lay,
And the behemoth breasted the billows wild
With the plesiosaurus gay.

Oh, a happy wight was the Preadamite!
He basked in the griffin's smile,
Or followed the dragon's sportive flight,
Or wept with the crocodile.
An omelet made of the roc's egg stayed
His appetite so rare,
While whale on toast and walrus roast
Were his steady bill of fare.

No hotel bills or doctor's pills
Impaired his appetite;
He laughed at gout with his stomach stout,
And kept his molars bright.
Ho, a tear and a sigh for the days gone by,
And a dirge for the doughty dead!
Let the sea-serpent shuffle his coil and die,
For the good old days are sped.