The Platypus

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Title:     The Platypus
Author: Oliver Herford [More Titles by Herford]

MY child, the Duck-billed Plat-y-pus
A sad ex-am-ple sets for us:
From him we learn how In-de-ci-sion
Of char-ac-ter pro-vokes De-ri-sion.
This vac-il-lat-ing Thing, you see,
Could not de-cide which he would be,
Fish, Flesh, or Fowl, and chose all three.
The sci-en-tists were sore-ly vexed
To clas-si-fy him; so per-plexed
Their brains that they, with Rage at bay,
Called him a hor-rid name one day,--
A name that baf-fles, frights, and shocks us,--
Or-ni-tho-rhyn-chus Par-a-dox-us.

[The end]
Oliver Herford's poem: Platypus

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