Should punch for half a year ...
...?
Rock of Sisyphus!—Cask of the Danaides!—Hydra of Argolis, with the unquenchable heads!—these and others are similes that fatally drift into his meditations.
HAUNTING RHYMES
When engaged upon work of protracted and futile iteration—such as “Bracken-chivvying”—tags of inane rhymes are apt to invade the hypnotized brain: of the kind that sometimes rise in accompaniment to the steady bumping of railway wheels on certain slow journeys. A particularly haunting one—to be conjured off if possible—is the “Nightmare” jingle, Mark Twain’s, I believe:
Punch/, conduc/tor, punch/with care,
A green/trip-slip/for a two/cent fare,
A pink/trip-slip/for a three/cent fare,
Punch/, punch/, punch with care ...