Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat (20 page)

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did
,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say
,
On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day
,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round
,
And every one cried, “You’ll all be drowned!”
They called aloud, “Our Sieve ain’t big
,
But we don’t care a button! We don’t care a fig!
In a Sieve we’ll go to sea!”
Far and few, far and few
,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue
,
And they went to sea in a Sieve
.

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did
,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast
,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail
,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go
,
“O won’t they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long
,
And happen what may, it’s extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!”
Far and few, far and few
,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue
,
And they went to sea in a Sieve
.

The water it soon came in, it did
,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat
,
And they fastened it down with a pin
.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar
,
And each of them said, “How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long
,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong
,
While round in our Sieve we spin!”
Far and few, far and few
,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue
,
And they went to sea in a Sieve
.

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down
,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong
,
In the shade of the mountains brown
.
“O Timballo! How happy we are
,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar
,
And all night long in the moonlight pale
,
We sail away with a pea-green sail
,
In the shade of the mountains brown!”
Far and few, far and few
,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue
,
And they went to sea in a Sieve
.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did
,
To a land all covered with trees
,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart
,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart
,
And a hive of silvery Bees
.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws
,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws
,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree
,
And no end of Stilton Cheese
.
Far and few, far and few
,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue
,
And they went to sea in a Sieve
.

And in twenty years they all came back
,
In twenty years or more
,
And every one said, “How tall they’ve grown!
For they’ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone
,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore!”
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, “If we only live
,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve—
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!”
Far and few, far and few
,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue
,
And they went to sea in a Sieve
.

From Edward Lear’s
A Book of Nonsense