MY first, the Scriptures say, in Eden grew.
Pronounce its letters—there ’s my whole for you!
My last name to myself I can’t apply;
My whole, tradition says, could never lie.
[89]
MY last was very tall and very slim
So all his people made a mock of him;
Their jeerings worried him and grieved his soul;
And when a clown with jest and laughter passed,
And said, “Aha! you are my first, my last!”
He said, “Don’t speak to me; I am my whole.”
[90]
I ’d oft be thankful, could I be my whole;
And yet I would not always be my whole;
I woo my first, that I may be my whole;
Cockneys call her my last; but in my whole
When to my first I go, I am my whole.
[91]
“A BIRD in the hand is worth two in the bush,”
How often we ’ve heard those old words,
And my total, I have it on evidence strong,
Is exactly the worth of two birds.
The dome of St. Paul’s is my first, my last;
The dome of St. Peter’s is, too;
But if you should go there and see for yourself,
You would say that this is n’t true.