Classic Poem

Thunder-lizard, Brontosaurus,
You that lived so long before us,
You that ruled this mundane locus
In the days of Diplodocus,
Marvel of your age—the classic
Mesozoic time, Jurassic,
Stir your sixty feet of length!
Rouse your prehistoric strength!
Lift your twenty tons anew!
They are taking tea—with you!
What effrontery! what mockery!
Rise, oh, rise and smash the crockery!

Once you roamed o'er rocks cretaceous
Feasting on the growths herbaceous,
Chewing Damarites gum
With Iguanodon, your chum.
Once you listened to the singing
Of the Pterodactyls, winging
Through the arborescent ferns.
Doing acrobatic turns,
Archæopteryx bore chorus,
When, with mighty Mososaurus
And Triceratops the proud
Through the tepid seas you plowed.

Now you hearken to the clatter
Of the tea-cups, and the chatter
Of an upstart race, as dwarfish
As a Cenozoic crawfish!
Though they say you're not carnivorous,
Wag that tail—and Lord deliver us!

Did some dragon-slaying Horus
Cause your death, great Brontosaurus?
Did the marshes cloak your glory
With their mud?—(A shameful story!)
Once you breathed, Creation's wonder,
And your footsteps woke the thunder.

Now, they treat you with disdain;
Say you had a two-pound brain,
Not an ounce of wit to spare,
And the courage of a hare!
Will you hear the shocking slander
Unrevengeful? Where's your dander?
Make these Men of Science see things!
Raise a riot 'mongst the tea-things!
Show the might you lived to glory in!
Rise! insulted Dinosaurian!