a virtual lekking so proud and denatured were we then

there once was a tyger
whose heart was quite black
fear yet me he cried
whose heart was quite black

a peacock happened there
in that tyger'd tight world
he hop't and he blew
and his tail unfurled

in a scrape and a hollow
such lekking he did
and there in that wallow
he boasted and hid

and slid him a fever
in a packet so tight
that e'en a tyger
could nestle that night

as a cigarette nurstles
in the lips and cavorts
in the lap of all vessels
that sway at his thwarts

[and in the morning the voice
that spake that there was the third
and that there were only three
and of this it was the third
and that no more would there be
but three and this then was the third]

of the tyger was nothing
returned or yet seen
but the slow acre danced
in stripes dun and green

the peacock arose
he flut then his tayle
whereupon he dids't lift
in quite a great gale

[and thereupon he spake again
that this was all of the three
thrice he had spoken from five
to three of which it was the third
and this proclaimed the three]

and now I must flit
where the hearken is through
I wish you were here
where that tyger-root grew
.