Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=357917" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Insect</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">From Camoweal to Windywoe, from Windywoe to Thirstyville,<br>We'll drag the line around the map, along the plain, and up the hill;<br>Scross the desert, to the swamp, across the swamp and up the rise.<br>'Our ' Sacred Rights must be preserved, 'our' claims you'll have to recognise.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One night, while others were abed,<br>With weary eyes and aching head,<br>I pored for hours and hours upon a map,<br>Till dots and lines began to swim.<br>'Suggested routes' grew blurred and dim,<br>And then, I think, I must have had a nap.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>But, with a start,it seemed to me,<br>I sat boolt upright suddenly,<br>And gazed, with staring eyes, before me straight;<br>For there, upon my inkwell's brim,<br>With aspect most grotesque and grim,<br>Methought a large, fat, hairy spider sate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'Good fellow, you behold in me<br>An insect of repute,' said he.<br>'I'm that State Insect, so much talked about.<br>I've frequently been mentioned in<br>Such papers as THE BULLETIN;<br>So you have beard of me before, no doubt.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'You've recently,' pursued the brute,<br>'Been pondering upon the route<br>Of our Transcontinental Railway Line.<br>I do not know what views you hold;<br>But, if it be not deemed too bold,<br>I'll just acquaint you with a few of mine.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Then, suddenly, the creature dropped<br>Heels over head, and downward flopped<br>Into the pot, and floundered in the ink.<br>I calmly thought, 'He'll drown, no doubt';<br>But presently he struggled out<br>And sat, once more, all dripping, on the brink.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'Ere I proceed to illustrate<br>The views of each protesting State<br>Thus did the beast address me from the pot <br>'Please understand I represent<br>All phases of State discontent;<br>In me is concentrated all the lot!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Then quickly from the pot he crawled,<br>And, ere I could prevent it, sprawled<br>Upon the map. I cursed at him in vain.<br>And as he went, and left behind<br>Long, inky smears, all crossed and lined,<br>He chanted this preposterous refrain:</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'From Drouthyhurst to Dottytown, from Dottytown to Thirstyville.<br>We'll drag the line around the map, and o'er the plain, and up the hill;<br>With here a twist, and there a turn and over here a wide detour.<br>Our claims you have to recognise; our prejudices must endure.<br>From Boodle's run to Foodle's pub our Sacred Rights you must preserve <br>From Foodle's pub to Doodle's dam, the int'rests of the State to serve;<br>Insanely crawling through the map, and in and out, and to and fro,<br>If you'd propitiate the States, this is the way the line will go.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I seized a pen, in angry haste,<br>And, with a curse, the creature chased<br>From off the map, then looked, and cursed some more.<br>But 'round the corner of the pot<br>The spider peered and said, 'What rot!<br>I don't see what you've got to curse me for!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'I will explain, if you'll permit,'<br>It said ; but in an angry fit<br>I banged the map and yelled; 'Upon my word!<br>You've crossed and lined it back and forth,<br>But one straight line from south to north<br>Does not appear! Your system is absurd!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'Suppose,' I said, 'invaders came;<br>Here, in the north. How, in the name<br>Of thunder, could we quickly move our troops?<br>How could we rush our army forth<br>Into the unprotected North<br>With all your crazy twists and turns and loops!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Good fellow, I have yet to learn<br>That it is any State's concern<br>To meddle with Defence,' he made reply.<br>'That is the Commonwealth's lookout;<br>They'll get 'em there. I have no doubt;<br>But, as for us, we've other fish to fry.<br>'Yet if you really want to know<br>Which way the troops will have to go,<br>Once more I shall be happy to explain.'<br>And, as I planned his sudden death,<br>The creature drew a long, deep breath<br>And sang again this maddening refrain:</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'From Drouthyhurst to Dottytown, from Dottytown to Thirstyville.<br>We'll drag the army 'round the map, and o'er the plain, and up the hill;<br>With over here a wide detour, and here a twist, and there a turn;<br>And if they never meet the foe it isn't any state's concern.<br>We'll drag 'em miles and weary miles, from Foodle's pub to Boodle's run;<br>The while the foeman gains the North, without the firing of a gun.<br>From Boodle's run to Doodle's dam, o'er kink and curl and loop and curve.<br>Our int'rests you must recognise, our Sacred Rights you must observe.'<br>Again, all haste I made to grab<br>A pen; this time resolved to stab<br>The loathly insect in some vital spot;<br>But, though with murd'rous aim I hit,<br>'Twas wasting energy, for it<br>Eluded me and dodged around the pot.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Aha! You're not the first of men<br>To try to slay me with a pen,'<br>It sneered. 'They try in vain; I still survive.<br>And now I go to make a league<br>And weave a web of State intrigue<br>That will enmesh you all, if I'm alive.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Then, with another wicked sneer,<br>The creature seemed to disappear.<br>I searched in vain; the thing had vanished quite.<br>And though I laugh, and talk, and think,<br>And go to church. and take to drink,<br>I can't shake off the horrors of that night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For still that ruined map I've got,<br>All sullied o'er with smear and blot,<br>The sight of which calls forth a frenzied scream.<br>And, since that night, I've counsel sought<br>Of learned men who surely ought<br>To know, but all declare it was a dream.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet, when the views of PHILP or WADE,<br>Within the Tory press displayed,<br>Assault mine eyes, I seem to see quite plain<br>That ugly spider, fat and squat,<br>Perched insolently on the pot;<br>I seem to hear again the weird refrain:-</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>'From Drouthyhurst to Dottytown, from Dottytown to Thirstyville,<br>We'll drag the line around the map, and o'er the plain, and up the hill;<br>With here a kink, and there a curve, and here a needless, wide detour.<br>Our claims you have to recognise; our sacred int'rests must endure.<br>For Boodle has a bit of land, and Foodle has much influence.<br>And Doodles cattle must be trucked, whatever happens to Defence.<br>So down it goes by Snoodle's road, from Snoodle's road to Noodle's Well.<br>Aus-tral-i-an defence be blowed! Austral-i-a may go to Hell!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Clarence+Michael+James+Stanislaus+Dennis">Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=357917" data-title="The Insect de Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis" data-description="From Camoweal to Windywoe, from Windywoe to Thirstyville,
We'll drag the line around the map, along the plain, and up the hill;
Scross the desert, to the swamp, across the swamp and up the rise.
'Our ' Sacred Rights must be preserved, 'our' claims..."></div>
</div>
</div>