The Serpent
There was a Serpent who had to sing.
There was. There was.
He simply gave up Serpenting.
Because. Because.
He didn’t like his Kind of Life;
He couldn’t find a proper Wife;
He was a Serpent with a soul;
He got no Pleasure down his Hole.
And so, of course, he had to Sing,
And Sing he did, like Anything!
The Birds, they were, they were Astounded;
And various Measures Propounded
To stop the Serpent’s Awful Racket:
They bought a Drum. He wouldn’t Whack it.
They sent, —you always send, —to Cuba
And got a Most Commodious Tuba;
They got a Horn, they got a Flute,
But Nothing would suit.
He said, “Look, Birds, all this is futile:
I do not like to Bang or Tootle.”
And then he cut loose with a Horrible Note
That practically split the Top of his Throat.
“You see,” he said, with a Serpent’s Leer,
“I’m Serious about my Singing Career!”
And the Woods Resounded with many a Shriek
As the Birds flew off to the end of Next Week.
-Theodore Roethke
Wow!
Just simply Wow!
Lovely poem…
simply too much fun. very amusing. well penned.
There’s a fabulous song setting of this poem by Lee Hoiby, who wrote it for Leontyne Price.
The song adaptation I’ve heard is by William Bolcom. Apparently, there have been several musical settings written in the ’70s:
see
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=13764
One my favourites my grandad use to read it to me when i was little (:
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A really nice piece. Thanks for sharing!
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