Saturday, January 15, 2011

Don't ask why I know this one....


I am going through the poems I learned as a child and recited in the kitchen with my mom, this was one of her favorites, I get a feeling it was something she had to learn in college...I will tell you, as a child, I hated the big words , as Invisi-gal I still hate the big words, but it creeps me out a wee bit.
It strikes me as a poem used by med students to remember sterilization techniques and now possibly by bacteria-phobes....




Strictly Germ Proof by Arthur Guiterman written in 1916

The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;—
It wasn't Disinfected and it wasn't Sterilized.

They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of Disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.

In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And elected it a member of the Fumigated Band.

There's not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.


....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I REMEMBER the antiseptic baby poem! My grandmother owned a book of poems titled "Best Loved Poems of the American People", and that's where I first read "Antiseptic" and also "Twins". Years later, the book "Best Loved Poems" was mentioned in the Stephen King novella "The Library Policeman" - so he must have read it, too.

Invisi-Gal said...

I must find this book...