The Blind Man and the Elephant

By John G. Saxe

It was six men of Indostan,  

  To learning much inclined,  

Who went to see the elephant,  

  (Though all of them were blind,)  

That each by observation  

  Might satisfy his mind.  

The first approached the elephant,  

  And, happening to fall  

Against his broad and sturdy side,  

  At once began to bawl  

“God bless me! but the elephant  

  Is very like a wall!”  

The second, feeling of the tusk,  

  Cried: “Ho! what have we here.  

So very round, and smooth, and sharp?  

  To me ‘tis very clear,  

This wonder of an elephant  

  Is very like a spear!”  

The third approached the animal,  

  And, happening to take  

The squirming trunk within his hands,  

  Thus boldly up he spake:  

“I see,” quoth he, “the elephant  

  Is very like a snake!”  

The fourth reached out his eager hand,  

  And felt about the knee:  

“What most this wondrous beast is like  

  Is very plain,” quoth he;  

“’Tis clear enough the elephant  

  Is very like a tree!”  

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,  

  Said: “E’en the blindest man  

Can tell what this resembles most:  

  Deny the fact who can,  

This marvel of an elephant  

  Is very like a fan!”  

The sixth no sooner had begun  

  About the beast to grope,  

Than, seizing on the swinging tail  

  That fell within his scope,  

“I see,” quoth he, “the elephant  

  Is very like a rope!”  

And so these men of Indostan  

  Disputed loud and long,  

Each in his own opinion  

  Exceeding stiff and strong,  

Though each was partly in the right  

  And all were in the wrong!