The Jumblies

               Edward Lear

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did.
   In a Sieve they went to Sea.
In spite of all their friends could say
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day
   In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round
And every one cried: "You'll be drowned!"
They called aloud: "Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! We don't care a fig!
   In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"

Far and few, far and few,
   Are the lands where the Jumblies live.
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
   And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
   In a Sieve they sailed so fast
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail
   To a small tobacco-pipe mast.
And every one said, who saw them go,
   "O, won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long.
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
   In a Sieve to sail so fast!"

Far and few, far and few,
   Are the lands where the Jumblies live.
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
   And they went to sea in a Sieve.

The water it soon came in, it did,
   The water it soon came in
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat
   And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery jar
And each of them said: "How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark and the voyage be long
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong
While round in our Sieve we spin"

Far and few, far and few,
   Are the lands where the Jumblies live.
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
   And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And all night long they sailed away
   And when the sun went down
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong
   In the shade of a mountains brown.
"O Timballo! How happy we are
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery jar
And all night long in the moonlight pale
We sail along with a pea-green sail
In the shade of the montains brown!"

Far and few, far and few,
   Are the lands where the Jumblies live.
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
   And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
   To a land all covered with trees
And they bought an Owl and a useful Cart
And a pound of Rice and a Cranberry Tart
   And a hieve of silvery bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree
And no end of Stilton cheese.

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live.
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And in twenty years they all come back
   In twenty years or more
And every one said: "How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes and the Terrible Zone
   And the hills of the Chankly Bore".
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast.
And every one said: "If we only live
We too will go to sea in a Sieve, --
To the hills of the Chankly Bore"!

Far and few, far and few,
   Are the lands where the Jumblies live.
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
   And they went to sea in a Sieve.