Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As "Slimy skin," or "Polly-wog,"
Or likewise "Ugly James,"
Or "Gap-a-grin," or "Toad-gone-wrong,"
Or "Bill Bandy-knees":
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).
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Authorship:
- by (Joseph) Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953), "The frog", appears in The Bad Child's Book of Beasts, first published 1896 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Jean Berger, né Arthur Schloßberg (1909 - 2002), "The frog", published <<1968 [ SA chorus and piano ], from A Child's Book of Beasts [sung text not yet checked]
- by Donald James Martino (1931 - 2005), "The frog", 1952, from From "The Bad Child's Book of Beasts", no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-09-08
Line count: 13
Word count: 66