Anonymous British

I Saw A Peacock

I Saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail, I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail, I saw a Cloud, with Ivy circled round, I saw a sturdy Oak, creep on the ground, I saw a Pismire, swallow up a Whale, I saw a raging Sea, brim full of Ale, I saw a Venice Glass, full fifteen feet deep, I saw a well, full of men's tears that weep, I saw red eyes, all of a flaming fire, I saw a House, as big as the Moon and higher, I saw the Sun, even in the midst of night, I saw the man, that saw this wondrous sight. Anonymous (before 1665) pismire is an archaic term for an ant In First Loves, Margaret Atwood describes this "trick" poem as "the first poem I can remember that opened up the possibility of poetry for me. " The trick is the two ways it can be understood; read a line at a time, or read from the middle of one line to the middle of the next. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes notes that it appears in a commonplace book dated to around 1665; it seems to have been first published in the Westminster-Drollery in 1671.