Sunday, November 4, 2012

the mole and the earthworm

A Handy Mole 
Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

A handy Mole who plied no shovel
To excavate his vaulted hovel,
While hard at work met in mid-furrow
An Earthworm boring out his burrow.
Our Mole had dined and must grow thinner
Before he gulped a second dinner,
And on no other terms cared he
To meet a worm of low degree.
The Mole turned on his blindest eye
Passing that base mechanic by;
The Worm entrenched in actual blindness
Ignored or kindness or unkindness;
Each wrought his own exclusive tunnel
To reach his own exclusive funnel.

A plough its flawless track pursuing
Involved them in one common ruin.
Where now the mine and countermine,
The dined-on and the one to dine?
The impartial ploughshare of extinction
Annulled them all without distinction.

5 comments:

  1. An ode to a mole. Very entertaining!

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  2. I love Christina Rossetti....and your drawing is the perfect accompaniment!

    ♥ Robin ♥

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  3. A great poem & illustration. Your post came up as a related post on my Wordpress.com post editor as I was writing my Mole post for tomorrow, so I thought I'd stop on by & say Hi

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