A Line-o’-Type or Two
Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli.
—Juvenal.
Question:
Who is this Juvenal wheezer?
Readers inquire every day.
Give us a line on the geezer—
What is he trying to say?
Do you expect us to get stuff
That is clear over our bean?
What is that “Quicquid, et cet.” stuff?
What does the gibberish mean?
Reply:
If you’re too lazy to look for
Juvenal’s name in the Dic,
Why should I go to the book for
Such a cantankerous kick?
Still, to avoid all dissension,
And my good nature to prove,
I am quite willing to mention
One or two things about Juve.
Juve was a Roman humdinger,
Writer of satires and sich.
He was consid’rable stinger—
Rare were his sallies and rich.
High his poetic position,
Lofty his manner and brow;
Lived in the time of Domitian;—
That’s all I think of just now.
As for that “Quicquid, and so forth,”
I have but space to advise
If you’d decipher it go forth,
Look in the Dic and be wise.
Make it a point, in your reading,
Always to look up what’s new.
That is a simple proceeding:
Why not adopt it? I do.