Tho' much averse, dear Jack, to flicker, To find a likeness for friend V -- ker, I've made thro' Earth, and Air, and Sea, A Voyage of Discovery! And let me add (to ward off strife) For V -- ker and for V -- ker's Wife -- SHE large and round beyond belief, A superfluity of Beef! Her mind and body of a piece, And both composed of kitchen-grease. In short, Dame Truth might safely dub her Vulgarity enshrin'd in blubber! He, meagre Bit of Littleness, All snuff, and musk, and politesse; So thin, that strip him of his clothing, He'd totter on the edge of NOTHING! In case of foe, he well might hide Snug in the collops of her side. Ah then, what simile will suit? Spindle-leg in great jack-boot? Pismire crawling in a rut? Or a spigot in a butt? Thus I humm'd and ha'd awhile, When Madam Memory with a smile Thus twitch'd my ear -- 'Why sure, I ween, In London streets thou oft hast seen The very image of this Pair: A little Ape with huge She-Bear Link'd by hapless chain together: An unlick'd mass the one -- the other An antic small with nimble crupper --' But stop, my Muse! for here comes Supper. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GREAT CAROUSAL by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE EARLY MORNING by HILAIRE BELLOC EPISTLE TO AUGUSTA by GEORGE GORDON BYRON A LITTLE CHRISTMAS BASKET by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE WIDOW'S MITE by FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON MODERN LOVE: 47 by GEORGE MEREDITH COLIN CLOUTS COME HOME AGAIN by EDMUND SPENSER |