The Crocodile

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws.
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

Lewis Carroll

 

The Crocodile's Toothache

 

The Crocodile went to the dentist,

And sat down in the chair,

And the dentist said, "Now tell me, sir,

Why does it hurt and where?"

And the Crocodile said, "I'll tell you the truth,

I have a terrible ache in my tooth,"

And he opened his jaws so wide, so wide,

That the dentist, he climbed right inside,

And the dentist laughed, "Oh isn't this fun?"

As he pulled the teeth out, one by one.

And the Crocodile cried, "You're hurting me so!

Please put down your pliers and let me go."

But the dentist just laughed with a Ho Ho Ho,

And he said, "I still have twelve to go--

Oops, that's the wrong one, I confess,

But what's one crocodile's tooth, more or less?"

Then suddenly, the jaws went SNAP,

And the dentist was gone, right off the map,

And where he went one could only guess...

To North or South or East or West...

He left no forwarding address.

But what's one dentist, more or less?

 

Shel Silverstein (1932 - 1999)

A Crocodile

 

Hard by the lilied Nile I saw

A duskish river-dragon stretched along,

The brown habergeon of his limbs enamelled

With sanguine almandines and rainy pearl:

And on his back there lay a young one sleeping,

No bigger than a mouse; with eyes like beads,

And a small fragment of its speckled egg

Remaining on its harmless, pulpy snout;

A thing to laugh at, as it gaped to catch

The baulking, merry flies. In the iron jaws

Of the great devil-beast, like a pale soul

Fluttering in rocky hell, lightsomely flew

A snowy troculus, with roseate beak

Tearing the hairy leeches from his throat.

 

Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)