As another birthday rolls around, I find myself choosing a poem that is something of a mystery, called simply “Ambiguous Lines” by an unknown hand.
I saw a beetle swallow up a whale
Anonymous
I saw a foaming sea brimful of ale
Poem 416. Ambiguous Lines
READ WITH A COMMA AFTER THE FIRST NOUN IN EACH LINE
I saw a peacock with a fiery tail
I saw a blazing comet pour down hail
I saw a cloud all wrapt with ivy round
I saw a lofty oak creep on the ground
I saw a beetle swallow up a whale
I saw a foaming sea brimful of ale
I saw a pewter cup sixteen feet deep
I saw a well full of men’s tears that weep
I saw wet eyes in flames of living fire
I saw a house as high as the moon and higher
I saw the glorious sun at deep midnight
I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight.
I saw a pack of cards gnawing a bone
I saw a dog seated on Britain’s throne
I saw King George shut up within a box
I saw an orange driving a fat ox
I saw a butcher not a twelvemonth old
I saw a great-coat all of solid gold
I saw two buttons telling of their dreams
I saw my friends who wished I’d quit these themes.
I have seen this poem several times but up to now, always without the instruction in capitals at the beginning. Each line seems to be nonsense or at least unconnected to any other, but if you put a comma after the first noun in each line, the connections become clearer—for example:
I saw a peacock, with a fiery tail
I saw a blazing comet, pour down hail
I saw a cloud, all wrapt with ivy round
I saw a lofty oak, …
So it is the blazing comet with the fiery tail, the cloud that pours hail, and the oak enclosed in ivy. So it goes on and we have to admire the invention of the anonymous author of this riddle or nonsense poem. This is known as enjambment in poetry—the continuation of a phrase onto the next line of the poem. It has been commonly used in poems since the classical era, and is still used in modern song lyrics—for example, from last week’s choice:
You danced upon a soldier’s arm
A Night in Summer Long Ago, by Mark Knopfler.
And I felt the blade of love so keen
And when you smiled, you did me harm
And I was drawn to you, my Queen
I like this poem because it is clever and the images are very striking, with or without the commas.
I have not found any performances of it online, I’m afraid.