On seashore far a green oak towers
And to it with a
gold
chain bound,
A learned cat whiles away the hours
By walking slowly round and round.
To right he walks, and sings a ditty;
To left he walks, and tells a tale...
A strange place! There a mermaid sits in A tree;
there prowls a sprite; on trails
Unknown
to man move beasts unseen by His eyes;
there stands on chicken feet,
Without a door or e'en a window,
A tiny hut, a hag's retreat.
Both wood and valley
there are teeming
With wondrous things...
When dawn comes, gleaming
Waves o'er the sands
and grasses creep,
And from the clear and shining water
Step thirty goodly knights escorted
By their old tutor, of the deep
An ancient dweller... There a dreaded Tsar
by a prince is captive ta'en;
There, as all watch, for cloud banks headed,
Across the sea and o'er the plain,
There, in a mortar, onward sweeping
All of itself, beneath the skies
There once was I, and the learned cat,
As near him 'neath the oak I sat
