The Emperor's Robe

By Ernestine Cobern Beyer

To a famous old Emperor, long, long ago,
Came two wicked tailors who bowed very low.
"We've come," stated one with a smirk and a smile,
"To make you a robe of unusual style.

The cloth we shall use (oh, it passes belief!)
Is invisible, Sire, to a rogue or a thief!
Only the good and the just and the kind
Can see it, the cloth is so ultra-refined!"
Said the Emperor, being a bit of a dunce,
"Make it at once!"

Those tailors, the craftiest pair on the globe,
Then went through the motions of making the robe.
They measured and cut and they snipped and they stitched,
While the Court and the Emperor watched them, bewitched.

Not one in the palace was honest enough
To say: "There's no robe! It's a hoax! It's a bluff!"
Instead, they exclaimed with exuberant praise:
"Never has robe so enchanted our gaze!"
The Emperor thought (and most puzzled was he)
"Everyone's able to see it but me!
I mustn't admit it because if I do,
It means I'm a rogue or I'd see the robe, too!
And so I must use my invalu'ble head,
And pretend that I see it!" Aloud, then, he said:
"The robe is distinguished! (Be careful! Don't tear it!)
And since it's a robe of exceptional merit,
"I'll wear it!"

Well, wear it he did. Dressed in nothing, complete,
The Emperor happily strutted the street
While two little pages, important and vain,
Hoisted aloft his invisible train.
Everyone cheered him with fervor and joy
Except little Peter, the butcher man's boy,
Who, having no personal axes to grind,
Stated the truth with an innocent mind.

Cried Peter in wonder unblemished with guile:
"The Emperor's wearing a beautiful smile!
And," he went on in a tone clear and small,
That's ALL!"


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