Dum tacent clamant <br /> <br />INGLORIOUS friend! most confident I am <br />Thy life is one of very little ease; <br />Albeit men mock thee with their similes <br />And prate of being 'happy as a clam!' <br />What though thy shell protects thy fragile head <br />From the sharp bailiffs of the briny sea? <br />Thy valves are, sure, no safety-valves to thee, <br />While rakes are free to desecrate thy bed, <br />And bear thee off-as foemen take their spoil- <br />Far from thy friends and family to roam; <br />Forced, like a Hessian, from thy native home, <br />To meet destruction in a foreign broil! <br />Though thou art tender yet thy humble bard <br />Declares, O clam! thy case is shocking hard!<br /><br />John Godfrey Saxe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-to-a-clam/
