Vers Nonsensiques
À Potsdam, les totaux absteneurs,
Comme tant d’autres titotalleurs,
Sont gloutons, omnivores,
Nasorubicolores,
Grands manchons, et terribles duffeurs.
Un vieux due (le meilleur des époux)
Demandait (en lui tâtant le pouls)
À sa vielle duchesse
(Qu’un vieux catarrhe oppresse):—
“Et ton thé, t’a-t-il ôté ta toux?”
II naquit près de Choisy-le-Roi;
Le Latin lui causait de l’effroi;
Et les Mathématiques
Lui donnaient des coliques,
Et le Grec l’enrhûmait. Ce fut moi.
Il etait un gendarme, à Nanteuil,
Qui n’avait qu’une dent et qu’un oeil;
Mais cet oeil solitaire
Etait plein de mystère;
Cette dent, d’importance et d’orgueil.
“Cassez-vous, cassez-vous, cassez-vous,
O mer, sur vos froids gris calloux!”
Ainsi traduisit Laure
Au profit d’Isadore
(Bon jeune homme, at son futur epoux.)
Un marin naufrage (de Doncastre)
Pour prière, an milieu du désastre
Répétait à genoux
Ces mots simples et doux:—
“Scintillez, scintillez, petit astre!”
George du Maurier.
There was a young man of Cohoes,
Wore tar on the end of his nose;
When asked why he done it,
He said for the fun it
Afforded the men of Cohoes.
Robert J. Burdette.
I’d rather have habits than clothes,
For that’s where my intellect shows.
And as for my hair,
Do you think I should care
To comb it at night with my toes?
I’d rather have ears than a nose,
I’d rather have fingers than toes,
But as for my hair:
I’m glad it’s all there;
I’ll be awfully sad when it goes.
I wish that my Room had a Floor;
I don’t so much care for a Door,
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite a bore!
Gelett Burgess.
H was an indigent Hen,
Who picked up a corn now and then;
She had but one leg
On which she could peg,
And behind her left ear was a wen.
Bruce Porter.
Cleopatra, who thought they maligned her,
Resolved to reform and be kinder;
“If, when pettish,” she said,
“I should knock off your head,
Won’t you give me some gentle reminder?”
Newton Mackintosh.
When that Seint George hadde sleyne ye draggon,
He sate him down furninst a flaggon;
And, wit ye well,
Within a spell
He had a bien plaisaunt jag on.
Anonymous.
There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a Tiger;
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the Tiger.
Anonymous.
There was a young maid who said, “Why
Can’t I look in my ear with my eye?
If I give my mind to it,
I’m sure I can do it,
You never can tell till you try.”
Anonymous.