The Frog
Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As ‘Slimy skin,’ or ‘Polly-wog,’
Or likewise ‘Ugly James,’
Or ‘Gape-a-grin,’ or ‘Toad-gone-wrong,’
Or ‘Billy Bandy-knees’:
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare).
– Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)
Sung by Susan Diamond
Date of Song’s Composition: 28 October, 2003
Commentary: This fun poem is by the a French-English writer, politician, and historian Hilaire Belloc. It is from his 1896 collection of children’s poetry The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts.