StoryTitle("caps", "A Tragic Story ") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(60, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There lived a sage in days of yore, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he a handsome pigtail wore; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But wondered much, and sorrowed more, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Because it hung behind him.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He mused upon the curious case,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And swore he 'd change the pigtail's place, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And have it hanging at his face,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Not dangling there behind him.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Says he, \"The mystery I've found,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I'll turn me round,\"—he turned him round; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But still it hung behind him.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then round and round, and out and in, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All day the puzzled sage did spin;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In vain—it mattered not a pin,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The pigtail hung behind him.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And right, and left, and round about, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And up, and down, and in, and out ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He turned; but still the pigtail stout ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hung steadily behind him.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And though his efforts never slack,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And though he twist, and twirl, and tack, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Alas! still faithful to his back,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The pigtail hangs behind him.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("85", SmallCapsText("—Albert von Chamisso.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
(Translated by William Makepeace Thackeray.)