In 1933 Cicely Fox Smith produced a children's book quite different from the poetry books for which she is famed or even the children's stories she wrote in collaboration with her sister Madge Scott Smith.
This was a book giving abbreviated details of the young of a variety of animals. As an introduction to some of the animals she was describing she penned some appropriate verses and these are reproduced here.
[Madge was given partial credit in the Author's note of dedication]
The published poems were as follows
Ham, Shem, and Japhet [Introduction]
Master Brock [Badger]
Wolf Cubs
The Changeling [Cuckoo]
Hide and Seek [Fishes]
Nests [Reed Warbler]
Master Hippo [Hippopotamus]
Penguins
The Art of Catching Flies [Flycatcher]
Little Gorilla
The Alligator's Children
Jim Saville
- Ham, Shem, and Japhet went a-sailing in the Ark,
With all the kinds of animals that grunt and squeak and bark,14 lines - Look! said the hedge-sparrow, 'isn't he fine?
Nobody else has a child like mine!12 lines, 1 comment - Little Gorilla, why do you look so sad? . . .
Are you thinking about the glorious times that you had13 lines - The alligator is a creature
With not a single pleasing feature;5 lines, 1 comment - Long before the Mammoth died in the ice and snow,
Master Brocky made his earth snug and warm below.16 lines - The hippo from the banks of Nile,
How wide and winning is the smile20 lines, 1 comment - If all the old stories are true that we hear
Of wolves and their doings, it's certainly queer7 lines, 1 comment
