Gateway to the Classics: Display Item
A. A. Milne

At the Zoo

There are lions and roaring tigers, and enormous camels and things,

There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons, and a great big bear with wings,

There's a sort of a tiny potamus, and a tiny nosserus too—

But I  gave buns to the elephant when I  went down to the Zoo!


There are badgers and bidgers and bodgers, and a Superintendent's House,

There are masses of goats, and a Polar, and different kinds of mouse,

And I think there's a sort of a something which is called a wallaboo—

But I  gave buns to the elephant when I  went down to the Zoo!


If you try to talk to the bison, he never quite understands;

You can't shake hands with a mingo—he doesn't like shaking hands.

And lions and roaring tigers hate  saying, "How do you do?"—

But I  give buns to the elephant when I  go down to the Zoo!