The Kangaroo

Kanagaroo, Kangaroo! Thou Spirit of Australia, That redeems from utter failure, From perfect desolation, And warrants the creation Of this fifth part of the Earth, Which would seem an after-birth, Not conceivd in the Beginning (For GOD blessd His work at first, And saw that it was good), But emergd at the first sinning, When the ground was therefore curst; And hence this barren wood! Kangaroo, Kangaroo! Tho at first sight we should say, In thy nature that there may Contradiction be involvd, Yet, like discord well resolvd, It is quickly harmonized. Sphynx or mermaid realizd, Or centaur unfabulous, Would scarce be more prodigious, Or Pegasus poetical, Or hippogriff chimeras all! But, what Nature would compile, Nature knows to reconcile; And Wisdom, ever at her side, Of all her childrens justified. She had made the squirrel fragile; She had made the bounding hart; But a third so strong and agile Was beyond evn Natures art; So she joind the former two In thee, Kangaroo! To describe thee, it is hard: Converse of the camlopard, Which beginneth camel-wise, But endeth of the panther size, Thy fore half, it would appear, Had belongd to some small deer, Such as liveth in a tree; By thy hinder, thou shouldst be A large animal of chace, Bounding oer the forests space; Joind by some divine mistake, None but Natures hand can make Nature, in her wisdoms play, On Creations holiday. For howsoeer anomalous, Thou yet art not incongruous, Repugnant or preposterous. Better-proportiond animal, More graceful or ethereal, Was never followd by the hound, With fifty steps to thy one bound. Thou canst not be amended: no; Be as thou art; thou best art so. When sooty swans are once more rare, And duck-moles the Museums care, Be still the glory of this land, Happiest Work of finest Hand! Barron Field Wild grass, mosses, lemon myrtle, cinnamon myrtle, and bush nut.