Give me no gold nor palaces

Nor quarts of gems in chalices

Nor mention me in Who is Who

I’d rather roam abroad with you

Investigating sky and land,

Volcanoes, lakes, and glacial sand

I’d rather climb with all my legs

To find a nest of speckled eggs,

Or watch the spotted spider spin

Or see a serpent shed its skin!

Give me no star-and-garter blue!

I’d rather roam around with you.

Flatten me not with flattery!

Walk with me to the Battery,

And see in glassy tanks the seals,

The sturgeons, flounders, smelt and eels

Disport themselves in ichthyic curves —

And when it gets upon our nerves

Then, while our wabbling taxi honks

I’ll tell you all about the Bronx,

Where captive wild things mope and stare

Through grills of steel that bar each lair

Doomed to imprisonment for life &............