Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TOM TWIST, by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER Poet's Biography First Line: Tom twist was a wonderful fellow Last Line: Where it still continues to spin. Subject(s): Activity; Sailing & Sailors; Wandering & Wanderers; Youth; Exercise; Seamen; Sails; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes | ||||||||
TOM TWIST was a wonderful fellow, No boy was so nimble and strong; He could turn ten summersets backward, And stand on his head all day long; No wrestling, or leaping, or running, This tough little urchin could tire; His muscles were all gutta-percha, And his sinews bundles of wire. Tom Twist liked the life of a sailor, So off, with a hop and a skip, He went to a Nantucket captain, Who took him on board of his ship; The vessel was crowded with seamen, Young, old, stout and slim, short and tall, But in climbing and swinging and jumping, Tom Twist was ahead of them all. He could scamper all through the rigging, As spry and as still as a cat, While as for a jump from the maintop To deck, he thought nothing of that; He danced at the end of the yard-arm, Slept sound in the bend of a sail, And hung by his legs from the bowsprit, When the wind was blowing a gale. The vessel went down in a tempest, A thousand fathoms or more, But Tom Twist dived under the breakers, And swimming five miles got ashore; The shore was a cannibal island, The natives were hungry enough, But they felt of Tommy all over, And found him entirely too tough. So they put him into a boy-coop, Just to fatten him up, you see, But Tommy crept out, very slyly, And climbed to the top of a tree; The tree was the nest of a Condor, A bird with prodigious big wings, Who lived upon boa-constrictors, And other digestible things. The Condor flew home in the evening, And there lay friend Tommy, so snug, She thought she had pounced on a very Remarkable species of bug; She soon woke him up with her pecking, But Tommy gave one of his springs, And leaped on the back of the Condor, Between her long neck and her wings. The Condor tried plunging and pitching, But Tommy held on with firm hand, Then off, with a scream, flew the Condor, Over forest and ocean and land; By and by she got tired of her burden, And flying quite close to the ground, Tom untwisted his legs from the creature, And quickly slipped off with a bound. He landed all right and feet foremost, A little confused by his fall, And then ascertained he had lighted On top of the great Chinese Wall; He walked to the City of Pekin Where he made the Chinamen grin; He turned ten summersets backward, And they made him a Mandarin! Then Tom had to play the Celestial, And to dangle a long pigtail, And he dined on puppies and kittens, Till his spirits began to fail; Then he sighed for his native country, And he longed for its ham and eggs, And in turning summersets backward His pigtail would catch in his legs. He sailed for his dear home and harbor, The house of his mother he knew, He climbed up the lightning-rod quickly, And came down the chimney-flue; His mother in slumber lay dreaming She never would see him more, When she opened her eyes and Tommy Stood there on the bedroom floor! Her nightcap flew off in amazement, Her hair stood on end with surprise; "What kind of a ghost or a spirit Is this that I see with my eyes?" "I am your most dutiful Tommy" "I will not believe it," she said, "Till you turn ten summersets backward, And stand half an hour on your head." "That thing I will do, dearest mother." At once, with a skip and a hop, He turned the ten summersets backward, But then was unable to stop! The tenth took him out of the window, His mother jumped from her bed, To see his twentieth summerset Take him over the kitchen shed. Then over the patch of potatoes, And beyond the church on the hill, She saw him tumbling and turning, Turning and tumbling still; Until Tommy's body diminished In size to the head of a pin, Spinning away in the distance, Where it still continues to spin. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BUMS, ON WAKING by JAMES DICKEY A FOLK SINGER OF THE THIRTIES by JAMES DICKEY WANDERER IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by CLARENCE MAJOR THE WANDERER by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN LONG GONE by STERLING ALLEN BROWN BLACK SHEEP by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON A VAGABOND SONG by BLISS CARMAN NOTHING TO WEAR' by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER THE INCOGNITA OF RAPHAEL by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER A GOLDEN WEDDING: C.B.-E.A.B., 1825-1875 by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER |
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