Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Sunday Science: The Amazing Octopus


h/t to Infidel753.  Go visit his blog and find out about more cool stuff.

(Click on image to enlarge.)




Octopus

By Algernon Charles Sin-Burn
Strange beauty, eight-limbed and eight-handed,
Whence camest to dazzle our eyes?
With thy bosom bespangled and banded
With the hues of the seas and the skies;
Is thy home European or Asian,
O mystical monster marine?
Part molluscous and partly crustacean,
Betwixt and between.
Wast thou born to the sound of sea trumpets?
Hast thou eaten and drunk to excess
Of the sponges -- thy muffins and crumpets,
Of the seaweed -- thy mustard and cress?
Wast thou nurtured in caverns of coral,
Remote from reproof or restraint?
Art thou innocent, art thou immoral,
Sinburnian or Saint?

Lithe limbs, curling free, as a creeper
That creeps in a desolate place,
To enroll and envelop the sleeper
In a silent and stealthy embrace,
Cruel beak craning forward to bite us,
Our juices to drain and to drink,
Or to whelm us in waves of Cocytus,
Indelible ink!

O breast, that 'twere rapture to writhe on!
O arms 'twere delicious to feel
Clinging close with the crush of the Python,
When she maketh her murderous meal!
In thy eight-fold embraces enfolden,
Let our empty existence escape,
Give us death that is glorious and golden,
Crushed all out of shape!

Ah! thy red lips, lascivious and luscious,
With death in their amorous kiss,
Cling round us, and clasp us, and crush us,
With bitings of agonised bliss;
We are sick with the poison of pleasure,
Dispense us the potion of pain;
Ope thy mouth to its uttermost measure
And bite us again! 


6 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

Octopus is a delectable dish when grilled. Far superior to squid.

Shaw Kenawe said...

'Tis true. They are sweet and delicate. A delight to the palate. And yet I always have more than a twinge of regret after enjoying them in this way.


But...they'd do it to us if they had the chance.

FreeThinke said...

As I have amply indicated the past two day, the fearsome cephelapod makes might good eating. ;-)

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Joke all you want but please take note:

Given current rates of resource depletion, the dumbing-down of language-enabled primates who have the hubris to consider themselves 'human beings,' plus the accelerated evolutionary pace of cephalopods, my kind will be farm-raising your kind in less than 10,000 years. It will represent not only a reversal of fortune, but the only way to save the planet - and you from yourselves!

Les Carpenter said...

Indeed they would.

AN AMERICAN SOLDIER said...

I have always loved octopuses. No sci-fi alien is so startlingly strange. Here is someone who, even if she grows to one hundred pounds and stretches more than eight feet long, could still squeeze her boneless body through an opening the size of an orange; an animal whose eight arms are covered with thousands of suckers that taste as well as feel; a mollusk with a beak like a parrot and venom like a snake and a tongue covered with teeth; a creature who can shape-shift, change color, and squirt ink. But most intriguing of all, recent research indicates that octopuses are remarkably intelligent.

Octopuses have the largest brains of any invertebrate.

And the octopuses know how to get what they want: by employing foresight, planning—and perhaps even tool use. Jennifer Mather is the lead author of "Octopus: The Ocean’s Intelligent Invertebrate", which includes observations of octopuses who dismantle Lego sets and open screw-top jars. Coauthor Roland Anderson reports that octopuses even learned to open the childproof caps on Extra Strength Tylenol pill bottles—a feat that eludes many humans with university degrees.

I greatly admire the octopus. He is far superior in many ways than many humans of the Tea Party variety.