RPO -- James McIntyre : Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds

James McIntyre (1827-1906)

Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds

1We have seen the Queen of cheese,

2Laying quietly at your ease,

3Gently fanned by evening breeze --

4Thy fair form no flies dare seize.

5All gaily dressed soon you'll go

6To the great Provincial Show,

7To be admired by many a beau

8In the city of Toronto.

9Cows numerous as a swarm of bees --

10Or as the leaves upon the trees --

11It did require to make thee please,

12And stand unrivalled Queen of Cheese.

13May you not receive a scar as

14We have heard that Mr. Harris

15Intends to send you off as far as

16The great World's show at Paris.

17Of the youth -- beware of these --

18For some of them might rudely squeeze

19And bite your cheek; then songs or glees

20We could not sing o' Queen of Cheese.

21We'rt thou suspended from baloon,

22You'd caste a shade, even at noon;

23Folks would think it was the moon

24About to fall and crush them soon.

Notes

1] The cheese was made by James Harris at the Ingersoll factory (99).

6] the great Provincial Show: the Toronto Industrial Exposition, founded in 1878, and lit by electricity in 1882, where 22 of 23 buildings focused on agriculture (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2nd edn. [Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988]: 345).

16] The great World's show at Paris: in 1889 the Effel Tower was built for this exhibition, established in 1851 in London.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: James McIntyre, Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames, including poems on local, Canadian and British subjects, and lines on the great poets of England, Ireland, Scotland and America, with a glance at the wars in Victoria's reign (Ingersoll: H. Rowland, 1884): 111-12. B-11 1857 Fisher Rare Books Library.
First publication date: 1884
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1999.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/21

Rhyme: aaaa

Other poems by James McIntyre