À Potsdam, les totaux absteneurs,
Comme tant d'autres titotalleurs,
Sont gloutons, omnivores,
Nasorubicolores,
Grands manchons, et terribles duffeurs.
Un vieux due (le meilleur des époux)
Demandait (en lui tâtant le pouls)
À sa vielle duchesse
(Qu'un vieux catarrhe oppresse):--
"Et ton thé, t'a-t-il ôté ta toux?"
II naquit près de Choisy-le-Roi;
Le Latin lui causait de l'effroi;
Et les Mathématiques
Lui donnaient des coliques,
Et le Grec l'enrhûmait. Ce fut moi.
Il etait un gendarme, à Nanteuil,
Qui n'avait qu'une dent et qu'un oeil;
Mais cet oeil solitaire
Etait plein de mystère;
Cette dent, d'importance et d'orgueil.
"Cassez-vous, cassez-vous, cassez-vous,
O mer, sur vos froids gris calloux!"
Ainsi traduisit Laure
Au profit d'Isadore
(Bon jeune homme, at son futur epoux.)
Un marin naufrage (de Doncastre)
Pour prière, an milieu du désastre
Répétait à genoux
Ces mots simples et doux:--
"Scintillez, scintillez, petit astre!"
_George du Maurier_.
* * * * *
There was a young man of Cohoes,
Wore tar on the end of his nose;
When asked why he done it,
He said for the fun it
Afforded the men of Cohoes.
_Robert J. Burdette_.
* * * * *
I'd rather have habits than clothes,
For that's where my intellect shows.
And as for my hair,
Do you think I should care
To comb it at night with my toes?
I'd rather have ears than a nose,
I'd rather have fingers than toes,
But as for my hair:
I'm glad it's all there;
I'll be awfully sad when it goes.
I wish that my Room had a Floor;
I don't so much care for a Door,
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite a bore!
_Gelett Burgess_.
H was an indigent Hen,
Who picked up a corn now and then;
She had but one leg
On which she could peg,
And behind her left ear was a wen.
_Bruce Porter_.
Cleopatra, who thought they maligned her,
Resolved to reform and be kinder;
"If, when pettish," she said,
"I should knock off your head,
Won't you give me some gentle reminder?"
_Newton Mackintosh_.
When that Seint George hadde sleyne ye draggon,
He sate him down furninst a flaggon;
And, wit ye well,
Within a spell
He had a bien plaisaunt jag on.
_Anonymous_.
There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a Tiger;
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the Tiger.
_Anonymous_.
There was a young maid who said, "Why
Can't I look in my ear with my eye?
If I give my mind to it,
I'm sure I can do it,
You never can tell till you try."
_Anonymous_.