English Poetry. Ellis Parker Butler. A Question. Эллис Паркер Батлер.

Ellis Parker Butler (Эллис Паркер Батлер)

A Question

Whene’er I feed the barnyard folk
  My gentle soul is vexed;
My sensibilities are torn
  And I am sore perplexed.

The rooster so politely stands
  While waiting for his food,
But when I feed him, what a change!
  He then is rough and rude.

He crowds his gentle wives aside
  Or pecks them on the head;
Sometimes I think it would be best
  If he were never fed.

And so I often stand for hours
  Deciding which is right—
To impolitely have enough,
  Or starve and be polite.

Ellis Parker Butler’s other poems:

1. Cupid Caught Napping
2. Song for Heroes
3. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
4. The Sheep
5. A Satisfactory Reform

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

Francis Thompson (Фрэнсис Томпсон) A Question (“O bird with heart of wassail”)

Alfred Austin (Альфред Остин) A Question (“Love, wilt thou love me still when wintry streak”)

Isaac Rosenberg (Айзек Розенберг) A Question (“What if you shut your eyes and look”)

Dinah Craik (Дина Крейк) A Question (“SOUL, spirit, genius–which thou art–that whence”)

Robert Frost (Роберт Фрост) A Question (“A voice said, Look me in the stars”)

882

To the dedicated English version of this website

---