>Oh how I hate the human race,
Oh how I hate its ugly face!

I'm not sure of the orgin of this one, but I do remember something in HS that was quoted:

oh I wish I loved the human race, I wish I loved its silly face and when I'm introduced to one I wish I said, 'What jolly fun!"

I wish I loved the Human Race

I wish I loved the Human Race;
I wish I loved its silly face;
I wish I liked the way it walks;
I wish I liked the way it talks;
And when IÂm introduced to one,
I wish I thought "What Jolly Fun!"

- Sir Walter A Raleigh

The Human Altitude
by Geoffrey Dearmer

When I catch myself agape
Grinning at a barbary ape,
Or assuming hatred lies
In the hungry tiger's eyes;
Whe I call the vulture "vile,"
Or "devilish" the crocodile;
Tigers "cruel," camels' humps
"Ugly," or the roseate rumps
Which baboons so proudly show
As they swing from bough to bough;

Here is a link that might be useful: Complete text of poem

Dido your last comment has something of the Hugh Lofting/Dr Doolittle/Rex Harrison about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hugh Lofting

bwilliams,

Thanks very much indeed for what you gave me here. But I couldn't get any further with the link. It seems nobody will give me the whole thing.

Cindydavid and Dynomutt, thanks for your postings. I might have got that poem wrong, as ai quoted 'ugly face': I've been among a lot of people recently and after a while they didn't look too good to me, I'm afraid. And the apes looked rather lovely.

Thanks, Vee, for the link. Yes, I feel I'd rather like to go and talk to the animals must now - or else not talk to anyone. But it was a lovely cruise and I'll be in touch.

D.

"I think I could go and live with the animals...." sounds like American poet, Walt Whitman, to me. I cannot remember the rest, but it has long been one of my favorite quotes.

dido - It's too bad you can't get the link tat bwilliams provided to work. I really like the sentiment of the whole poem. I'm not sure it's the greatest poetry, but it does make a point.

> Sir Walter A Raleigh

Ah Ha! Thanks dyno.

Sorry the link didn't work.
Here is the complete poem:

THE HUMAN ALTITUDE BY GEOFFREY DKAHMKK [The Nation and the AI lien-rum]
WHEN I catch myself agape
Grinning at a Barbary ape,
Or assuming hatred lies
In the hungry tiger's eyes;
When I call the vulture 'vile,'
Or 'devilish' the crocodile;
Tigers 'cruel,' camels' humps
'Ugly,' or the roseate rumps
Which baboons so proudly show
As they swing from bough to bough;
When I call the boar 'malicious,'
Kite 'revolting,' grizzly 'vicious,'
'Quaint' the lithe prehensile nose
The elephant so blithely blows;
When I say of birds: 'The he-male
Warbles to attract the she-male,'
Or 'Brute beasts are soulless,' I
Do not merely simply lie Â
I commit a sheer enormity
Like one jeering at deformity Â
I curse the day and bless the night;
In short, I sin against the light.
When I reluctantly arise,
Breakfast, after exercise,
With dispassionate disdain,
And breathlessly approach my train,
With my bowler on and spats;
Do the sparrows, dogs, and cats
Mock me in amused delight?
No, they don't, but well they might.
Animals have no pretense
Veiling their indifference.
They don't overeat nor whine,
Label all things 'yours' and 'mine.'
Never vulgar, avaricious,
Sentimental, superstitious;
Never snobbish, vengeful, vain,
Pleasure they accept, and pain.
Vice is unknown, filth abhorred.
They do good without reward.
When their lives on earth are done,
Happily, I think, they run
Over death's dividing dark,
Where those saints who ran the Ark Â
Noah and Japheth, Ham and Shem Â
Probably look after them.

I think that is all of it.
Brenda

Brenda,

:Thank you so much for that. I've got it now.

Dido

What a great poem! Thanks for posting it.