Still More Frogs From Friends XXII


I received some more frog poems from Alex that you're sure to enjoy. Thanks Alex!!

"These poems are from a book called Little Book Of Frogs. It does not have an author, but it was designed and created by the Bridgewater Book Company and published by Weidenfield and Nicolson, London. They are mainly all poems, but there are some parts of stories too."

A Frog's Advantage
Most toads can swin if they're forced to,
but unlike frogs, they rarely enter the
water. Since the planet is two-thirds water, where
do you think the limitations lie: with the frogs or the
toads? Frogs are smooth and sleek and moist:
toads are rough and dry and warty.

From "Half asleep in frog pajamas"
By Tom Robbins

A Startled Frog
I love at early morn from new mown swath
To see the startled frog his rout pursue
And mark while leaping oer the dripping path
His bright sides scatter dew
An early lark that from its bustle flyes -
To hail his mattin new
And watch him to the skyes

From Summer Images
By John Clare 1793-1864

Froggie
By a quiet little stream on an old mossy log,
Looking very forlorn, sat a little green frog;
He'd a sleek speckled back, and two bright yellow eyes,
And when dining, selected the choicest of flies.

The sun was so hot, he scarce opened his eyes,
Far too lazy to stir, let alone watch the flies,
He was nodding, and nodding, and almost asleep,
When a voice in the branches chirped "Froggie, cheep, cheep!"

"You'd better take care," piped the bird to the frog,
"In the water you'll be if you fall off that log.
Can't you see that the streamlet is up to the brim?"
Croaked the froggie: "What odds! You forget I can swim!"

Then the froggie looked up at the bird perched so high
On a bough that to him seemed to reach the sky:
So, he croaked to the bird: "If you fall, you wil die!"
Chirped the birdie: "What odds! You forget I can fly!"

The Frog and The Bird
By Vera Hessey

A-hum
A frog went a walking on a summer's day,
A-hum, a-hum.
A frog went a walking on a summer's day,
He met Miss Mousie on the way,
A-hum, a-hum, a-hum, a-hum, a-hum.

He said, "Miss Mousie, will you marry me?"
A-hum, a-hum.
He said, "Miss Mousie, will you marry me?
We'll live together in an apple tree."
A-hum, a-hum, a-hum, a-hum, a-hum

TRADITIONAL SONG

Frogs, the Earth, and the Stars
As you erudite people well know, the word
amphibian comes from the Greek amphi
and bios, meaning to live a double life. This refers,
needless to say, to an ability to live both in water
and on land. In that regard, amphibians are the most
adaptable creatures in the world, the ones, ironically,
best suited for residence here. But as those of you
who have read spy stories or had extramarital affairs
are aware, a double life implies a clandestine life, a life
of secret behaviours. Now, a frog is a little dumb animal with a
poot-sized brain. It probably isn't the custodian of a hell
of a lot of covert information. No, indeed. But rather than
possessing secrets, suppose a frog is a secret. A secret
link..... The amphibian is the bridge between the terrestrial
and the aquatic. I invite you to consider that it may also
be a bridge between our water planet and the largely arid
galaxy. A bridge between earth and the stars.

From Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
By Tom Robbins

Educated Frog
SMILEY....ketched a frog one day, and took him
home, and he said he cal'lated to educate him; so
he never done nothing for three months but set in his
back yard and learn that frog to jump...He got him up so in
the matter of ketching flies, and kep' him in practice so constant
that he'd nail a fly every time as fur as he could see him. Smiley
said all a frog wanted was education, and he could do "most
anything - and I believe him. Why, I've seen him set Dan'l Webster
- Dan'l Webster was the name of a frog - and sing out "Flies, Dan'l,
flies!" and quicker'n you could wink he'd spring straight up and snake
a fly off'n the counter there, an flop down on the floor ag'n as solid as
a glob of mud, and fall to scratching the side of his head with his hind
foot as indifferent as if he hadn't no idea he been doin' any more'n any
frog might do.You never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he
was, for all he was so gifted

From THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY
By Mark Twain 1835-1910

 

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