1Don Pedro from his shirt has washed the fleas
2for tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
3old corned-beef’s rusty armour spreads disease
4’ere meanings new to ancient tribes are thrown

5Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
6nought can the mouse’s timid nibbling stave
7proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
8Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave

9The peasants’s skirts on rainy days she’d tress
10shallots and sharks’fins face the smould’ring log
11from cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness

12We’ll suffocate before the epilogue
13and let you off from your opinions glum
14the best of all things to an end must come