Friday, October 3, 2008

The Dodo

This verse has changed in feeling with its context, I am sure. The last dodo was supposedly slain by a fisherman who feared it was a witch - as Seth Godin remarked in a recent post, we fear what we do not understand.
The Dodo used to walk around,
And take the sun and air.
The Sun yet warms his native ground--
The Dodo is not there!
The voice which used to squawk and squeak
Is now for ever dumb--
Yet you may see his bones and beak
All in the Mu-se-um
~Hilaire Belloc, The Bad Child's Book of Beasts