The Humourous Poetry of the English Language

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"My friend," the tourist said, "I fear you're really in the way to
Quite change the proverb, and be friends will neither Truth nor PLATO.
My books, 'tis true, are little worth, but they have served me long,
And I regard the greatness less than the nature of the wrong;
So, if the books must stay behind, I stay behind as well."
"Es ist mir nichts, mein lieber Freund," said the courteous sentinel.
ODE TO THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT ON HIS WONDERFUL REAPPEARANCE.
PUNCH.
From what abysses of the unfathom'd sea
Turnest thou up, Great Serpent, now and then,
If we may venture to believe in thee,
And affidavits of sea-faring men?
What whirlpool gulf to thee affords a home!
Amid the unknown depths where dost thou dwell?
If--like the mermaid, with her glass and comb--
Thou art not what the vulgar call a Sell.
Art thou, indeed, a serpent and no sham?
Or, if no serpent, a prodigious eel,
An entity, though modified by flam,
A basking shark, or monstrous kind of seal?
I'll think that thou a true Ophidian art;
I can not say a reptile of the deep,
Because thou dost not play a reptile's part;
Thou swimmest, it appears, and dost not creep.
The Captain was not WALKER but M'QUHAE,
I'll trust, by whom thou some time since wast seen
And him who says he saw thee t'other day,
I will not bid address the corps marine.
Sea-Serpent, art thou venomous or not?
What sort of snake may be thy class and style?
That of Mud-Python, by APOLLO shot,