Katharine Lee Bates (Кэтрин Ли Бейтс)
Don’t You See?
The day was hotter than words can tell, So hot the jelly-fish wouldn't jell. The halibut went all to butter, And the catfish had only force to utter A faint sea-mew — aye, though some have doubted, The carp he capered and the horn-pout pouted. The sardonic sardine had his sly heart's wish When the angelfish fought with the paradise fish. 'T was a sight gave the bluefish the blues to see, But the seal concealed a wicked glee— The day it went from bad to worse, Till the pickerel picked the purse-crab's purse. And the crab felt crabedder yet no doubt, Because the oyster would n't shell out. The sculpin would sculp, but had n't a model, And the coddlefish begged for something to coddle. But to both the dolphin refused its doll, Till the whale was oblidged to whale them all.
Katharine Lee Bates’s other poems:
941