Still More Frogs From Friends XXII


I received some 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."

Maiden's Kiss  
I am a frog

I live under a spell
I live at the bottom

Of a green well
 

And here I must wait
Until a maiden places me

On her royal pillow

And kisses me

In her father's palace
 

(The Frog Prince)
(Stevie Smith - 1902-1971)
   

A Frog he would a wooing go  
A frog he would a wooing go,

Heigh ho! says Rowley,

A frog he would a wooing go

Whether his mother would let him or no

With a rowley, powley, gammon and spinach

Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley
 

So off he set with his opera hat
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
And on the road he met a rat

Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.  

"Pray, Mr Rat will you go with me,
Heigh ho! says Rowley

Kind Mrs Mousey for to see?"

With a rowley, powley, gammon and spinach.

Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.
 

(A frog he would a wooing-go)
(Thomas Ravenscroft - 1592-1640)
 

Frogs and Snails  

I marvel why frogs and snails are with
some people and in some countries

in great account, and judged wholesome 
food, where as indeed they have in them

nothing else but a cold, gross, slimy and 

excremental juice.
 

(Via Recta 1620) (Tobias Venner)    

Waters Green  
His mansion in the Pool

The Frog forsakes- 

He rises on a Log

And statements makes - 

His Auditors two
Worlds
Deducting me - 
The Orator of April

Is hoarse Today - 
His Mittens at his feet
No Hand hath he - 

His eloquence a Bubble
And Fame should be-

Applaud him to discover

To your chagrin

Demosthenes has vanished 

In Waters Green
 

(His Mansion in the Pool)
(Emily Dickinson 1830-1886)    

Once Upon a Time  
Once upon a time there was a frog called
Mr Jeremy Fisher; he lived in a little damp

house amongst the buttercups at the edge

of a pond.

The water was all slippy-sloppy in the larder 

and in the back passage.

But Mr Jeremy liked getting his feet wet; nobody

ever scolded him and he never caught cold!  

(from The Tales of Mr Jeremy Fisher)
(Beatrix Potter 1866-1943)    

The Frog and the Toad  
Hopping frog, hop here and be seen
I'll not pelt you with stick or stone
Your cap is laced and your coat is green

Goodbye, we'll let each other alone
 

Plodding toad, plod here and be looked at,
You at the finger of scorn is crooked at:

But though you are lumpish, you're harmless too;

You won't hurt me and I won't hurt you.
 

(The Frog and the Toad)
(Christina Rossetti 1830 - 1894)
 

A Frog's Fate  
Contemptuous of his home beyond
The village and the village pond,

A large souled Frog who spurned each byeway
Hopped along the imperial highway.
 

Nor grunting pig nor barking dog
Could disconcert so great a Frog.

The morning dew was lingering yet,

His sides so cool, his tongue so wet:
The night-dew, when the night should come,
A travelled frog would send a home.
 

Not so, alas! The wayside grass
Sees him no more: no so, alas!
A broad-wheeled waggon unawares

Ran him down, his joys, his cares,
From dying choke one feeble croak
The Frog's perpetual silence broke:

"Ye buoyant Frogs, ye great and small,

Even I am mortal after all!

My road to fame turns out a wry way;
I perish on the hideous highway;

Oh for my familiar byway!"
 

The croaking Frog sobbed and was gone;
The wagoner strode whistling on,

Unconscious of the carnage done,
Whistling that waggoner strode on -

Whistling (it may have happened so)

"A froggy would a-wooing go"
A hypothetic frog trolled he,
Obtuse to reality
 

(from A Frog's Fate)
(Christina Rossetti 1830-1894)

THE FROG  
Be kind and tender to the frog
And do not call him names

As "Slimy-Skin" or "Pollywog"
Or likewise "Uncle James"

Or "Gape-a-grin" or "Toad-gone-wrong"
Or Billy Bandy knees
The frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these
 

No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair

At least, so lonely people say

Who meet a frog (and by the way,

They are extremely rare).
 

(A Bad Child's Book of Beasts)
(
Hilaire Belloc 1896)     

 

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  Page last updated 01 Feb 2003.
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