Effervescing Elephant (Syd Barret)

An effervescing Elephant with tiny eyes and great big trunk

once whispered to the tiny ear, the ear of one inferior

that by next June he'd die, oh yeah! because the tiger would roam.

The little one said: "Oh my goodness I must stay at home!

and every time I hear a growl, I'll know the tiger's on the prowl

and I'll be really safe, you know, the elephant he told me so."

Everyone was nervy,

oh yeah!

and the message was spread to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus

who wallowed in the mud and chewed his spicy hippo-plankton food

and tended to ignore the word preferring to survey a herd

of stupid water bison, oh yeah!

And all the jungle took fright, and ran around for all the day and the night

but all in vain, because, you see,

the tiger came and said:

"Who me?! You know, I wouldn't hurt not one of you.

I'd much prefer something to chew and you're all too scant."

oh yeah!

He ate the Elephant.

Activities

1) Put the following words in the correct column:

trunk roam growl nervy mongoose wallow chew survey herd bison scant whisper

Nouns related to animals Adjectives Verbs

2) Match the meanings of the following expressions 1-5 to a-e below:

1. In vain

2. Told me so

3. On the prowl

4. Took fright

5. I’d much prefer

6. Ignore the word

a. Not pay attention to what everybody is saying about something

b. There is no point in doing this

c. Somebody told me that

d. Become completely scared

e. To prefer

f. For a hunter (animal), to be looking for and/or waiting to attack a prey

3) Discuss the following:

Is there a morals to this short story? Could you relate it to the notion of “self-fulfilled prophecy”?

Why do you think this elephant is referred to as “effervescing”?

Describe, in your own words, the series of events that lead to the death of the elephant.