The Jumblies by Edward Lear

I
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

II

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
'O won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!'

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

III

The water it soon came in, it did,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, 'How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!'

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

IV

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
'O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!'

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

V

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

VI

And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, 'How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Continuing the traditions of my postings the weirder poems of society here is this week's insanity as I now present 

to you the Jumblies. I'm pretty sure by know you know the Jumblies are things described by, "Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve." But you are probably wondering what makes these intriguing little critters so worthy of a response, and the answer is that they have a classic little lesson behind them. The first two paragraphs show how the general population was looking down upon the Jumblies and their journey by saying things such as "You'll be drowned" or "O won't they be soon upset, you know"; however, the Jumblies did not back down and continued their journey saying, "Our Sieve ain't big, But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!" The third paragraph consists of showing the hardships the Jumblies had to endure, but continue they did and by the fourth paragraph we see the lovely land of trees and wierd yummy things like lollipop paws (no comment) they are able to find. In the fifth paragraph, twenty years have passed before the Jumblies return back to their homeland, and they are greeted with praise and partying for their accomplishments as the population now sees the Jumblies weren't so stupid after all. So now that I have rambled on for who knows how many lines, I think it times i presetn the moral of the story in a nut shell: If you have a dream don't let people try to stray you away from it but rather continue forward. But if you do continue you are going to have to endure some hardships to achieve your goal, but if you can endure these hardships the reward can be great and the people who looked down on you will soon see your greatness.    

.......Yay for child parables........the Jumblies still rock though :D