Poetry Friday

With Britain’s Royal Wedding this morning (didn’t get too sucked in, but did watch some), I considered, for about a minute, the themes of matrimony or romantic love for my Poetry Friday post. But it was magnificent hats that I began thinking more about when I watched the TV coverage. Hats, and the gathering of crowds to celebrate. So here’s Edward Lear’s “The Quangle Wangle’s Hat.” The link to the full poem below also links to a biographical profile of Lear, which made me a little sad reading on this day of wedding hoopla—that he had the “fond affection” of many, yet “was never beloved in the intimate, exclusive, constant manner he so fervently desired.”

THE QUANGLE WANGLE’S HAT
by Edward Lear

I
On the top of the Crumpetty Tree
The Quangle Wangle sat,
But his face you could not see,
On account of his Beaver Hat.
For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,
With ribbons and bibbons on every side
And bells, and buttons, and loops, and lace,
So that nobody every could see the face
Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.

II
The Quangle Wangle said
To himself on the Crumpetty Tree, —
“Jam; and jelly; and bread;
“Are the best of food for me!
“But the longer I live on this Crumpetty Tree
“The plainer than ever it seems to me
“That very few people come this way
“And that life on the whole is far from gay!”
Said the Quangle Wangle Quee.

Read the whole poem at the Poetry Foundation’s site here. (When you’re there, click on the About This Poem tab to read more about  Edward Lear.)

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is over at Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference. Go have a look.