Hoffenstein imagines creation as a craftsman’s workshop, with God as a meticulous artisan. The speaker lists creatures that usually get little admiration—toad, gnu, crab, camel, cow—and insists that each was shaped with “lapidary care” and “expert craftsmanship.” The joke arrives when the same lavish attention is said to go into “many a priest and president.” The speaker’s tone is dry and amused, not reverent: if a toad and a president come from the same divine hand, human rank starts to look a little ridiculous. The mood is playful but pointed, like a hymn that praises God’s handiwork while quietly deflating human vanity.
Songs of Faith in the Year After Next XIV — Summary
The lapidary care bestowed By God in fashioning the toad; The expert craftsmanship which He Spent on the gnu's topography; The thought which loosened from that Brow The crab, the camel and the cow, With equal lavishness He spent On many a priest and president.