[Quincy Lehr]

Test your critical faculties on this one, folks. What can James McIntyre (1827-1906) do? He's looking for ideas:

Ode on the Mammoth Cheese Weighing over 7,000 Pounds


We have seen the Queen of cheese,
Laying quietly at your ease,
Gently fanned by evening breeze --
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.


All gaily dressed soon you'll go
To the great Provincial Show,
To be admired by many a beau
In the city of Toronto.


Cows numerous as a swarm of bees --
Or as the leaves upon the trees --
It did require to make thee please,
And stand unrivalled Queen of Cheese.


May you not receive a scar as
We have heard that Mr. Harris
Intends to send you off as far as
The great World's show at Paris.


Of the youth -- beware of these --
For some of them might rudely squeeze
And bite your cheek; then songs or glees
We could not sing o' Queen of Cheese.


We'rt thou suspended from baloon,
You'd caste a shade, even at noon;
Folks would think it was the moon
About to fall and crush them soon.

[Henry Quince]

Well, Quincy, Mcintyre’s effort is a fine example in the genre of ludicrously forced rhyme. We did have a whole thread on cheese poems early this year, at http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/001598.html

where McIntryre’s fine example was cited. It’s enough to make you want to burn the implements of your craft and take up a new life as a trainer of performing elephants.

What do you want us to do with it, exactly, beyond admire in wonderment? Well, if that’s the idea, I’m with you there. And...

When a Quince follows a Quincy,
who shall deny the omen?
If the Quince doesn’t convince, he
fails with the Oklahoman.

What a name that is, Quincy!

A perfect name, but for one letter.
Quincy sounds good, but Quince still better.







[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited November 19, 2006).]

[Mark Allinson]

Now there's a thought to make us wince,
if "Henry" had been "Quincy Quince."