Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: IV. Ingenuities: Oddities | | The Hen | | Matthias Claudius (1740–1815) |
| | Anonymous translation from the German |
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A FAMOUS hen ’s my story’s theme, | |
| Which ne’er was known to tire | |
| Of laying eggs, but then she ’d scream | |
| So loud o’er every egg, ’t would seem | |
| The house must be on fire. | 5 |
| A turkey-cock, who ruled the walk, | |
| A wiser bird and older, | |
| Could bear ’t no more, so off did stalk | |
| Right to the hen, and told her: | |
| “Madam, that scream, I apprehend, | 10 |
| Adds nothing to the matter; | |
| It surely helps the egg no whit; | |
| Then lay your egg, and done with it! | |
| I pray you, madam, as a friend, | |
| Cease that superfluous clatter! | 15 |
| You know not how ’t goes through my head.” | |
| “Humph! very likely!” madam said, | |
| Then proudly putting forth a leg,— | |
| “Uneducated barnyard fowl! | |
| You know, no more than any owl, | 20 |
| The noble privilege and praise | |
| Of authorship in modern days— | |
| I ’ll tell you why I do it: | |
| First, you perceive, I lay the egg, | |
| And then—review it.” | 25 | | |
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