Abbreviation's Artful Aid

Harry Graham

1924

The Bard, at times
Is stumped for rhymes,
Without the least excuse.
He can defy
Such moments by
Abbreviation's use,
And gain the grat:
Of friend or neighb:
Without an at:
Of extra lab:

So simp: a rule
May seem pecul:
And make the crit: indig:
What matter if
The scans: is diff:
The meaning too ambig: ?
The net result,
Lacon: and punct:
Is worth a mult:
Of needless unct:

We long for sile:
From folks who pile
Their worldly Pel: on Oss:
Extremely nox:
And quite intox:
By their exhub: verbos:
We curse their imp:
In manner dras:
And fail to symp:
With their loquac:

In House of Rep:
Applause is tep:
For periphrastic Pol:
Reviewers sniff
At auth: prolif:
With semiannual vol:
But we can pard:
However peev:
The minor bard
Who will abbrev:

With pen and ink
In close propinq:
The Poet, lucky fell: !
Avoiding troub:
May give his pub:
The cred: for some intell:
And like an orph:
In pose recumb:
In arms of Morph:
Securely slumb:

Let corks explode:
With brand: and sod:
Ye wearers of the mot: !
Decant the cham:
(What matt: the dam: ? )
And empt: the flowing bott: !
And ne'er surren:
The Laureate's palm,
His haunch of ven:
And butt of Malm: !

End of title

Links

External resources

bookshop

Wikipedia

Project Gutenberg

Goodreads

Google Books