The Coot; The Bandicoot

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955) · How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts · 1917

I do not wish to at‑tri‑bute
Importance to the common Coot,
Or mud-hen, whom most persons scorn,
Because she chanced to be “Earth-born.”
The small Australian Bandicoots
Are said to spring from Kanga‑roots,
Which roots, as you of course foresee,
Are those of their ancestral tree,
The motto of which vegetable
Is just “O possum” (I am able).

Where this text comes from

First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

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Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/robert-williams-wood_how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers-and-other-woodcuts, how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L10.

Cite this poem

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955). “The Coot; The Bandicoot.” First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/robert-williams-wood/the-coot-the-bandicoot/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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