The gifted goose read to her daughter, <br />a highly literate goose, <br />and as she flew high over water <br />she read her Dr. Seuss. <br />“I’d rather, ” daughter said, “you read me <br />some Mother Goose instead, <br />I think that Dr. Seuss upset me <br />while on my feather-bed.” <br />The gifted goose said to her daughter, <br />“It's very clear, my dear, <br />that you prefer songs that are shorter: <br />I'll change to Edward Lear.” <br />She read her all about the owl <br />and pussy cat who sailed <br />across the ocean on a towel <br />because their boat had failed, <br />and all the songs that mother goose <br />alleged to be by Lear <br />were garbled, though to Dr. Seuss <br />resemblances were clear, <br />but that turned out quite good enough, <br />for daughter goose preferred <br />her mother's pseudo-Lear stuff <br />to any Seuss she'd heard. <br />And later on she sang her daughter <br />those same songs, and her niece, <br />for they were what her mother taught her: <br />that’s how it goes with geese. <br /> <br /> <br />There is a proverb by Randall Jarrell: 'Said the goose to her daughter, 'You are a perfect goose.'' Patricia Storce quotes the line, applying to it to Lawrence Durrell, reviewing a biography on him by Ian MacNiven (Faber and Faber) . <br /> <br /> 6/22/98 <br /><br />gershon hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mother-goose/
