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Eugene Field - Extinct Monsters
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Oh, had I lived in the good old days,
          When the Ichthyosaurus ramped around,
      When the Elasmosaur swam the bays,
          And the Sivatherium pawed the ground,
      Would I have spent my precious time
      At weaving golden thoughts in rhyme?

      When the Tinoceras snooped about,
          And the Pterodactyl flapped its wings,
      When the Brontops with the warty snout
          Noseyed around for herbs and things,
      Would I have bothered myself o’ermuch
      About divine afflatus and such?

      The Dinotherium flourished then;
          The Pterygotus lashed the seas;
      The Rhamphorhynchus prospered when
          The Scaphognathus perched in trees;
      And every creature, wild and tame,
      Rejoiced in some rococo name.

      Pause and ponder: who could write
          A triolet or roundelay
      While a Megatherium yawped all night
          And a Hesperornis yamped all day,
      While now and again the bray sonorous
      Of Glyptodon Asper swelled the chorus?

      If I’d been almost anything
          But a poet, I might have got along;
      Those extinct monsters of hoof and wing
          Were not conducive to lyric song;
      So Nature reserved this tender bard
      For the kindlier age of Pork and Lard.
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