OH! merry is the Madrepore that sits beside the sea; The cheery little Coralline hath many charms for me; I love the fine Echinoderms, of azure, green, and gray, That handled roughly fling their arms impulsively away; Then bring me here the microscope and let me see the cells Wherein the little Zoophite like garden floweret dwells. We'll take the fair Anemone from off its rocky seat, Since Rondeletius has said when fried't is good to eat. Dyspeptics from Sea-Cucumbers a lesson well may win, They blithely take their organs out and then put fresh ones in. The Rotifer in whirling round may surely bear the bell, With Oceanic Hydrozoids that Huxley knows so well. You've heard of the Octopus, 't is a pleasant thing to know He has a ganglion makes him blush, not red, but white as snow; And why the strange Cercaria, to go a long way back, Wears ever, as some ladies do, a fashionable "sac;" And how the Pawn has parasites that on his head make holes; Ask Dr. Cobbold, and he'll say they're just like tiny soles. Then study well zoology, and add unto your store The tales of Biogenesis and Protoplasmic lore; As Paley neatly has observed, when into life they burst, The frog and the philosopher are just the same at first; But what's the origin of life remains a puzzle still, Let Tyndall, Haeckel, Bastian, go wrangle as they will. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GOOD SHEPHERD by FELIX LOPE DE VEGA CARPIO RUNNING THE BATTERIES by HERMAN MELVILLE TO GIOVANNI DA PISTOIA ON THE PAINTING OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL, 1509 by MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI THE CAPTAIN; A LEGEND OF THE NAVY by ALFRED TENNYSON DELIVERANCE by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS TRANSPORT UP AT YPRES by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 5 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |