The Ah Goo Tongue

The queerest languages known to man,

Sanscrit, Hebrew, Hindoostan,

Are all translated and made as free

And comprehensive as A B C.

Yet the oldest language talked or sung,

The strange mysterious Ah Goo tongue,

The royal language of Babyland

No man living can understand.

Every soul in the world to-day

Was one time anchored in Babyland Bay,

And quarantined there for a year or more

Before he even could step on shore.

And everybody in Babyland Bay

Talks the Ah Goo tongue, so people say,

But once on land—why not a word

Do they understand of it when 'tis heard.

For the fairy rulers of Babyland

Who guard the kingdom on every hand,

Have willed that no one shall keep the key

Who crosses into the Grown-up Sea.

So the sweet court language has never been made

A common parlance of strife or trade,

But is kept in the kingdom where natives come

Versed in the language of Babydom.

They are all of them royal and that is how

The Grown-up people all kneel and bow,

When they hear that language talked or sung—

The strange mysterious Ah Goo tongue.