A Child's Dream of the Zoo

Transcribed from the 1886 edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
WILLIAM MANNING
AS RECITED BY HIM AT THE
Entertainment at the Brompton Hospital,
TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 16, 1886.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
If Artists at their easels Should ever paint the measles, I hope they’ll try and put the curious dreams in too; For when I went to bed With an aching in my head, And feeling rather red, I saw the Long-tailed Monkey, and the Keeper from the Zoo.
We had a little talk And they said “we’ll take a walk; We’ve got a Hastings Donkey that perhaps will do for you;” And though the sky was dark We made for Regent’s Park, My friends the Long-tailed Monkey and the Keeper from the Zoo.
They said “we see no reason, Though it’s late-ish in the season, Why a little picnic we shouldn’t try and do! And if you’ve no objection, We’ll make our own selection Of the many Midnight Sports in the Gardens of the Zoo!”
My word it made me stare As soon as we were there, To see so many pleasant faces that I knew, It was like a Noah’s Ark, In the middle of the Park, With nothing savage left in the creatures of the Zoo!
The dens were all unlocked, And yet I was not shocked To mingle in the throng, though my Donkey gave a bray! But the Zebra calmed his fears, And the Wild Ass stroked his ears, And promised him a Thistle as soon as it was day.
The kind Angora Goat, Now brought a little note, Which he said was sent for me from Madame Kangaroo, Who “hoped that I was well, With love from Miss Gazelle”— But this I did not tell My friend the Long-tailed Monkey or the Keeper from the Zoo!