There be three Badgers on a mossy stone
Beside a dark and covered way:
Each dreams himself a monarch on his throne,
And so they stay and stay —
Though their old Father languishes alone,
They stay, and stay, and stay.

There be three Herrings loitering around,
Longing to share that mossy seat:
Each Herring tries to sing what she has found
That makes Life seem so sweet.
Thus, with a grating and uncertain sound,
They bleat, and bleat, and bleat.

The Mother-Herring, on the salt sea-wave,
Sought vainly for her absent ones:
The Father-Badger, writhing in a cave,
Shrieked out " Return, my sons!
You shall have buns, " he shrieked, " if you'll behave!
Yea, buns, and buns, and buns! "

" I fear, " said she, " your sons have gone astray.
My daughters left me while I slept. "
" Yes 'm, " the Badger said: " it's as you say.
" They should be better kept. "
Thus the poor parents talked the time away,
And wept, and wept, and wept.

" Oh, dear beyond our dearest dreams,
Fairer than all that fairest seems!
To feast the rosy hours away,
To revel in a roundelay!
How blest would be
A life so free —
Ipwergis-Pudding to consume,
And drink the subtle Azzigoom!

" And if, in other days and hours,
Mid other fluffs and other flowers,
The choice were given me how to dine —
" Name what thou wilt: it shall be thine!"
Oh, then I see
The life for me —
Ipwergis-Pudding to consume,
And drink the subtle Azzigoom! "

The Badgers did not care to talk to Fish:
They did not dote on Herrings' songs:
They never had experienced the dish
To which that name belongs:
" And oh, to pinch their tails, " (this was their wish,)
" With tongs, yea, tongs, and tongs! "

" And are not these the Fish, " the Eldest sighed,
" Whose Mother dwells beneath the foam? "
" They are the Fish! " the Second one replied.
" And they have left their home! "
" Oh, wicked Fish, " the Youngest Badger cried,
" To roam, yea, roam, and roam! "

Gently the Badgers trotted to the shore —
The sandy shore that fringed the bay:
Each in his mouth a living Herring bore —
Those aged ones waxed gay:
Clear rang their voices through the ocean's roar,
" Hooray, hooray, hooray! "