TO begin, in things quite simple Quarrels scarcely ever fail -- And they fell out, Dan and Dimple, All about a horse's tail! So that by and by the quarrel Quite broke up and spoiled their play; Danny said the tail was sorrel, Dimple said that it was gray! "Gray!" said Danny, "you are simple!" "Just as gray as mother's shawl!" "And that's red!" Said saucy Dimple, "You're a fool, and that is all!" Then the sister and the brother -- As indeed they scarce could fail, In such anger, struck each other -- All about the horse's tail! "Red!" cried Dimple, speaking loudly, "How you play at fast and loose!" "Yes," said Danny, still more proudly, "When I'm playing with a goose!" In between them came the mother: "What is all this fuss about?" Then the sister and the brother Told the story, out and out. And she answered, "I must label Each of you a little dunce, Since to look into the stable Would have settled it at once!" Forth ran Dan with Dimple after, And full soon came hurrying back Shouting, all aglee with laughter, That the horse's tail was black! So they both agreed to profit By the lesson they had learned, And to tell each other of it Often as the fit returned. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: CHARLES WARREN, THE SHERIFF by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE HILL WIFE: THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM by ROBERT FROST ST. JOHN'S, CAMBRIDGE; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 1 by EZRA POUND UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 21. REQUIEM by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON SONG AT THE FEAST OF BROUGHAM CASTLE; UPON RSTORATION OF LORD CLIFFORD by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |