[1111] The Common Cormorant

The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
You follow the idea, no doubt?
It's to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds
Have never thought of, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

	-- Christopher Isherwood

What I like even more than this poem's inspired silliness is the absolutely
deadpan manner in which it is delivered. Even Silverstein's "Recipe for a
Hippopotamus Sandwich" [Poem #845], of which today's poem is strongly
reminiscent, didn't exude that tone of perfect reasonableness, that air of
merely elaborating on a well-known fact.

Is this a children's poem? It certainly works as one - children are for the
most part deeply appreciative of whimsy and topsy-turvy logic. But so are
many adults, and something about the poem makes me think that the latter
were Isherwood's intended audience, though I can't quite pin it down.

martin

Links:

  I found today's poem at http://www.newtrix.com/poems/ci-corm.htm which
  has a biography and a photo of Isherwood.

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[this poem is archived, accessible and awaiting your comments at]
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1111.html

From: Colin.Blowers@  Wed Apr 30 11:55:25 2003


I was surprised to see this poem attributed to Christopher Isherwood.  I've
always understood it to be by that most prolific writer, Anon.

It certainly is in 'Verse and Worse', edited by Arnold Silcock, (1963) and
goes like this:-

	The common cormorant or shag
	 Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
	The reason you will see no doubt -
	It is to keep the lightning out.
	But what these unobservant birds
	Have never noticed is that herds
	Of wandering bears may come with buns
	And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

Not a lot of difference, I agree, but at least the fourth line scans
properly.

Regards

Colin Blowers
UAT Tester

The Exchange
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Portsmouth Road
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From: "Joanna Watson" <joannawatson@>

Martin,

This is indeed a delightful poem.  I learned it as a child of eight in
1962, so am surprised to see this attributed to Christopher Isherwood
1982.  One of my sisters was asking for a copy of it yesterday, so I
thought I'd check the punctuation before writing it out for her.  I've
arrived at your webpage via Google.  I think that you got some of the
words wrong; you have introduced some paraphrases.  From my
recollection, the words of the poem are as follows (I don't remember the
punctuation):

The common cormorant or shag
Lays eggs inside a paper bag.
The reason you will see, no doubt,
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears may come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.


Do you have access to an original source so that you can check this?  If
so, can you help me with the punctuation.

Best wishes,
Joanna Watson