Page 15 - Poetry-Animals

A Useful Bird

When people in derision say,
“A perfect goose is she,”
It seems to me the other way;
In praise it ought to be.
A goose is such a useful bird,
And was more useful still
When all who wrote, as I have heard,
Wrote only with a quill.
And there are some who still delight
In the old-fashioned plan;
Who never did with steel pens write,
And never will, nor can.
Thus quills to them are useful things,
So long as they can write.
Then there’s the feather bed that brings
Them ease and rest at night.
We know the flesh is good to eat,
And when the year comes round
To Michaelmas, no greater treat
Than roast goose can be found.
Then there’s the oily, fatty part
Which makes our chapped hands soft—
When frost or wind has made them smart
Full many a time and oft.
And there is yet another thing,
Which housemaids can apply—
A thoroughly dried goose’s wing
Will make the cobwebs fly.
I am not versed in classic lore
(So much the greater pity),
But it is said, in days of yore,
A goose once saved a city.
So if you’re ever said to be
Exactly like a goose,
You can reply, “I’m glad to see
I am of so much use.”

—(Girl’s Own Paper, 1880)

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