31 October 2012

With apologies to Akaky Akakievich

But I simply have to copy here this example of poetic prowess*, seeing as how a normal reader doesn't usually bother to click through:

Absolute knowledge have I none,
But my aunt's washerwoman's sister's son
Heard a policeman on his beat
Say to a laborer in the street
That he had a letter just last week --
A letter which he did not seek --
From a Chinese merchant in Timbuktoo
Who said that his brother in Cuba knew
Of an Indian chief in a Texas town,
Who got the dope from a circus clown,
That a man in Klondike had it straight
From a guy in a South American state,
That a wild man over in Borneo
Was told by a woman who claimed to know,
Of a well-known society rake,
Whose mother-in-law will undertake
To prove that her husband's sister's niece
Has stated plain in a printed piece
That she has a son she never does see
Who knows what happened in Benghazi.

(*) I am not sure about pronunciation of "Borneo", though, and whether it will pair well enough with "to know". But then there are so many words in that darn language I am not sure about...

13 comments:

Akaky said...

Snoop, in English it's pronounced bore-nee-O, so it does rhyme with to know

Dick Stanley said...

I hope this poem is a comment on Barry's "cooling the mark" refusal to discuss what he really did in denying help to the ambassador in Benghazi and why he decided to pretend to the United Nations, etc., it was about a video no one had ever heard of. The style of the poem is familiar, though I can't recall the style's original author.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I knew I would be corrected, and thanks, Akaky.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I think you can safely expand the scope, to include the two weeks of lying to the world, the BS on details of the terrorist act, the obfuscation of truth in every aspect of this case.

As for the style: better to ask Akaky, I suggest.

Akaky said...

Dick, this bit of doggerel has been around forever. The last two lines are the ones that get rewritten the most in order to fit the scandal de jour into the rhyme scheme. The most famous rendition of this poem is the one done by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge,Sr, [R-Mass.] who read it into the Congressional Record back in 1923 or 1924. The "original" ending was "that she has a son who never comes home, who knows all about the Teapot Dome."

Lynne T said...

Dylan turned this bit of doggerel into "It's alright Ma, I'm only bleedin'/dyin' for Hwy 61.

yitzgood said...

The following mentions the wild man of Borneo:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DUEAG5eO6c&noredirect=1

Dick Stanley said...

Seuss must have cribbed it, then. Sounds like Horton Hatches The Egg.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, he is a receptive person, isn't he?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Not bed at all, thanks Yitzchak.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I didn't have any choice left in the matter.

Noga said...

It reminds me of the skit from the Gashash about the exes. (Gershon Grushovski).



I believe from my interaction on TNR that it is now almost un-PC to remember Benghazi. Noone wants to talk about it and if you mention it, you are a racist. In fact, If you do not openly support Obama, you are a racist, you hate gays, and most probably are also mentally disabled.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yep. Gershon Grushovski comes to mind indeed.