A Child's Dream of the Zoo

A child narrator with a fever dreams of a midnight carnival at the zoo where animals and keepers behave as people: monkeys escort visitors, elephants carry spectators, birds wheel in columns, seals stage luminous displays, and beasts perform acrobatics, races, and dances. The poem comprises a rapid succession of whimsical vignettes—comic tableaux, musical ensembles, a primate delivering a lecture, and a parrot announcing tea—that mix absurdity and affection. The sequence builds a crowded, jovial atmosphere before morning routines restore order and the child awakens for medicine, leaving the imagined revelry behind.