“Willie Starts Thinking” [poem for children, by Eva Oakley]

[Editor: This poem for children, by Eva Oakley, was published in Willie Wagtail, Two Little Romances and Other Verses (1945).]

“Willie Starts Thinking”

One day, when Willie Wagtail sat,
Away up in a tree,
He said, “Oh, dear! How very small
A tiny bird can be:
Still, when I mix with Spadge and Rob,
I don’t look very small;
It’s only when I get up here,
Into this tree-top tall.

I hope the people who read this,
Will not say, ‘How absurd!
To be comparing trees with him;
The foolish, little bird,
Upon the ground, he ought to stay,
And then he’ll find the earth
Is ever so much bigger still,
Around its mighty girth.’
But, never mind it, if they do.
As long as I am good,
And share my food with other “Bills,”
As ev’ry Wagtail should.”

Source:
Eva Oakley, Willie Wagtail, Two Little Romances and Other Verses, Melbourne: Austral Printing & Publishing Company, [1950], p. 5

Editor’s notes:
ev’ry = (vernacular) every

girth = the circumference of an object; a person’s waist or middle (especially used regarding someone with a large or fat waist); the part of an animal around which the girth (a strap or band to hold a harness or saddle in place) is fitted