Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds
Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds
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.
2Laying quietly at your ease,
3Gently fanned by evening breeze --
4Thy fair form no flies dare seize.
5All gaily dressed soon you'll go
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
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). Back to Line
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). Back to Line
16] The great World's show at Paris: in 1889 the Effel Tower was built for this exhibition, established in 1851 in London. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1884
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1999.
Rhyme