The Whale

By Hilaire Belloc 1870–1953 Hilaire Belloc

The Whale that wanders round the Pole

Is not a table fish.

You cannot bake or boil him whole,

Nor serve him in a dish;

But you may cut his blubber up

And melt it down for oil,

And so replace the colza bean

(A product of the soil).

These facts should all be noted down

And ruminated on,

By every boy in Oxford town

Who wants to be a Don.

Source: Complete Verse (1970)

Biography

Hilaire Belloc is considered one of the most controversial and accomplished men of letters of early twentieth-century England. An author whose writings continue to draw either the deep admiration or bitter contempt of readers, he was an outspoken proponent of radical social and economic reforms, all grounded in his vision of Europe as a "Catholic society." Although many critics have attacked Belloc's prescriptive polemical works . . .

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