Many years ago I edited a small book of poetry entitled Your Animal Poems. At the time my then wife was studying at the Royal College of Art and we had become friendly with Quentin Blake who was teaching illustration at the college. Quentin agreed to illustrate the book and I thought that in the coming days I would post some of the poems together with the accompanying illustrations in the hope that you might enjoy them.
Yet Gentle Will the Griffin be
(What Grandpa Told the Children)
The moon? It is a griffin’s egg,
Hatching tomorrow night.
And how the little boys will watch
With shouting and delight
To see him break the shell and stretch
And creep across the sky.
The boys will laugh. The little girls,
I fear, may hide and cry.
Yet gentle will the griffin be,
Most decorous and fat,
And walk up to the Milky Way
And lap it like a cat.
VACHEL LINDSAY