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Alfred Noyes - The New Duckling
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"I want to be new," said the duckling.
  "O, ho!" said the wise old owl,
While the guinea-hen cluttered off chuckling
  To tell all the rest of the fowl.

"I should like a more elegant figure,"
  That child of a duck went on.
"I should like to grow bigger and bigger,
  Until I could swallow a swan.

"I _won`t_ be the bond slave of habit,
  I _won`t_ have these webs on my toes.
I want to run round like a rabbit,
  A rabbit as red as a rose.

"I _don`t_ want to waddle like mother,
  Or quack like my silly old dad.
I want to be utterly other,
  And _frightfully_ modern and mad."

"Do you know," said the turkey, "you`re quacking!
  There`s a fox creeping up thro` the rye;
And, if you`re not utterly lacking,
  You`ll make for that duck-pond. Good-bye!"

"I won`t," said the duckling. "I`ll lift him
  A beautiful song, like a sheep;
And when I have--as it were--biffed him,
  I`ll give him my feathers to keep."

Now the curious end of this fable,
  So far as the rest ascertained,
Though they searched from the barn to the stable,
  Was that _only his feathers remained_.

So he _wasn`t_ the bond slave of habit,
  And he _didn`t_ have webs on his toes;
And _perhaps_ he runs round like a rabbit,
  A rabbit as red as a rose.
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