Read the excerpt from the poem below.
What could be sillier than for a cow
To try to cross the ocean in a scow?
With such a captain, to my way of thinking,
The wretched vessel would be sure of sinking!
What does the metaphor in the lines suggest?
Some Words Inside of Words
(for children and others)
by Richard Wilbur
The roc’s a huge, bold, hungry bird who’s able
To eat an elephant. (So says the fable.)
No farmer likes to see one feasting cockily
Right in the middle of his field of broccoli.
At heart, ambassadors are always sad.
Why? Because world affairs are always bad,
So that they’re always having to express
“Regret,” and “grave concern,” and “deep distress.”
The barnacle is found in salty seas,
Clinging to rocks in crusty colonies;
And salt, which chemists call NaCl,
Is found inside the barnacle as well.
What could be sillier than for a cow
To try to cross the ocean in a scow?
With such a captain, to my way of thinking,
The wretched vessel would be sure of sinking!
No one should be entrusted with a rudder
Who has two horns and four hooves and an udder.
Whether the living room is full of trout
And eels and salamanders, and if there’s
A snapping turtle paddling up the stairs.
If that’s what’s going on, your house (beyond
A doubt) is at the bottom of a pond.
Some snakes are nice to handle, but an asp
Is not the kind to take within your grasp.
That is what Cleopatra did, I fear,
And, as you know, she is no longer here.
“Some Words Inside of Words” by Richard Wilbur, copyright © 2004 by Richard Wilbur. Originally appeared in Atlantic Monthly, June 2004. Used by permission of the author.
