THERE was a bachelor in days of old,
Who wished to get himself a wife, we ’re told.
And so desirous of a wife was he,
He started off to London, one, two, three.
He must have found one to delight his soul,
Because soon after they returned my whole.
[32]
MY first, before the fray had ceased,
Offered my whole for my last beast;
Or Shakespeare tells us so at least.
[33]
MY first is given and received, a blessing and a bane;
You may buy it at the station, get it gratis on the train;
You may find it in a puppet-booth or in a banquet-hall,
And I think perhaps the Roman is the noblest of them all.
’Twas in my second, long ago, brave men put out to sea;
And at a garden-fête I saw my second flowing free;
And I leaned against my second of strong and solid oak,
But as I grasped my second, alas, it dropped and broke.