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A Nonsense Anthology

by Carolyn Wells

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Nonsense

Oh that my Lungs could bleat like butter’d Pease;
      But bleating of my lungs hath Caught the itch,
  And are as mangy as the Irish Seas
      That offer wary windmills to the Rich.

I grant that Rainbowes being lull’d asleep,
      Snort like a woodknife in a Lady’s eyes;
  Which makes her grieve to see a pudding creep,
      For Creeping puddings only please the wise.

Not that a hard-row’d herring should presume
      To swing a tyth pig in a Cateskin purse;
  For fear the hailstons which did fall at Rome,
      By lesning of the fault should make it worse.

For ’tis most certain Winter woolsacks grow
      From geese to swans if men could keep them so,
  Till that the sheep shorn Planets gave the hint
      To pickle pancakes in Geneva print.

Some men there were that did suppose the skie
      Was made of Carbonado’d Antidotes;
  But my opinion is, a Whale’s left eye,
      Need not be coyned all King Harry groates.

The reason’s plain, for Charon’s Westerne barge
      Running a tilt at the Subjunctive mood,
  Beckoned to Bednal Green, and gave him charge
      To fasten padlockes with Antartic food.

The End will be the Mill ponds must be laded,
      To fish for white pots in a Country dance;
  So they that suffered wrong and were upbraded
      Shall be made friends in a left-handed trance.

Anonymous, 1617.

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