Oliver Herford

“ The Boldest Metaphor grows tame;
Superlatives abjectly crawl
Back to their lexicon in shame,
And Synonyms in shrieking chorus
Take refuge in the deep Thesaurus.
But language has its Pioneers,
Who seek Fresh Words and Postures new,
Slang rushes in where Syntax fears
To tread—so I for Ade halloo,
And say (with George’s kind permission)
It was “A Heated Proposition.” ”

“ Strolled forth in search of game from out the Pinery.
And the Bird
Never stirred
Or said a word.
“Aha!” said Mr. Snake,
“Unless I much mistake,
Here’s a charming subject for a Trance Hypnotic;
Soon I’ll have her in my toils!”
And with mysterious coils
[35] He advanced with air complacent and despotic.
Then he rose up, and let fly
A glance from out his eye,
And watched for the effect of his narcotic.
And the Bird
Never stirred
Or said a word.
Said Mr. Snake, “My spell
Seems to work extremely well.” ”

“ Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg 9: ‘too and fro’ replaced by ‘to and fro’.
Pg 24: ‘for Ade halloo’ has not been changed, but probably meant to be ‘for Aide halloo’.
Pg 94: ‘H2O’ (with superscript) replaced by ‘H2O’ (subscript) . ”