[1]
My mother saw a dancing bear
By the
schoolyard, a day in June.
The keeper stood with chain and bar
And whistle-pipe, and played a tune.
[2]
And bruin lifted up its head
And lifted up its dusty
feet,
And all the children laughed to see
It caper in the
summer heat.
[3]
They watched as for the Queen it died.
They watched it
march. They watched it halt.
They heard the keeper as he cried,
`Now, roly-poly! Somersault!'
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[4]
And then, my mother said, there came
The
keeper with a begging-cup,
The bear with burning coat of fur,
Shaming the laughter to a stop.
[5]
They paid a penny for the dance,
But what they saw was
not the show;
Only, in bruin's aching eyes,
Far-distant
forests, and the snow.
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