A-Books The Ancient Hare

The Ancient Hare is one of the poems in the book ANIMALS IN SILHOUETTE. I wrote it after I found a wonderful old engraving on a free graphics site.

The Ancient Hare

This ancient hare was drawn

In 1754

Think about that for a minute

1754

That was the time

The word serendipity came into use

That was when George Washington was 22

But the dodo had been extinct for 70 years

No one had flown a plane

Or even a hot air balloon

Or (clearly) been to the moon

The most famous hare in literature

Mad March Hare from Alice

Wouldn’t appear for 111 years

If you were a girl you’d probably wear

A long stiff dress to your ankles

If you were a little boy

You’d feel fine in petticoats

You might have played with dolls

Toy soldiers, or ridden a hobby horse

You could even have had a board game!

You might have had a book called

A Little Pretty Pocket Book

And you wouldn’t have had to bother

Learning your left shoe from your right

‘cos they were both the same.

So this hare

                 Is very

                             Very

                                         Very

                                                     Old.

Don’t be silly, of course he never saw a dinosaur. Now those are seriously old.