1The acid tongue with gourmet’s expertise
2his exaltation shocked both youth and crone
3replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
4with cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown

5O Parthenon you hold the charger’s strings
6whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
7he’s gone to London how the echo rings
8the nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave

9The peasants’s skirts on rainy days she’d tress
10or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
11to prove mamma an adult with a tress

12With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
13where no one bothered how one warmed one’s bum
14the bell tolls fee-less fi-less fo-less fum