Living

Among the Animals

by Mary Mapes Dodge 1831–1905

From Rhymes and Jingles (1875)

Living

One rainy morning,
Just for a lark,
I jumped and stamped
On my new Noah's Ark:
I crushed an elephant,
Smashed a gnu,
And snapped a camel
Clean in two;
I finished the wolf
Without half tryin',
And wild hyena,
And roaring lion;
I knocked down Ham,
And Japhet, too,
And cracked the leg
Of the kangaroo;
I finished, beside,
Two pigs and a donkey,
A polar bear,
Opossum, and monkey;
Also the lions,
Tigers, and cats,
And dromedaries,
And tiny rats--
There wasn't a thing
That didn't feel,
Sooner or later,
The weight o' my heel;
I felt as grand
As grand could be--
But oh the whipping
My mammy gave me!

MLA

Dodge, Mary Mapes. “Among the Animals.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dodge_mm/45/.

Chicago

Dodge, Mary Mapes. “Among the Animals.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dodge_mm/45/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Mary Mapes Dodge