EXPLANATION FOR THE PREVIOUS POEM

The anonymous poem below is actually a baroque expansion of an age-old nursery rhyme. Compare with the original! Should you not have understood some of the events occurring in the poem, the more laconic original may clarify any doubts:

     This is the house that Jack built.

Behold the mansion reared by dædal Jack.

    This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

See the malt stored in many a plethoric sack,In the proud cirque of Ivan's bivouac.

This is the rat that ate the malt
that lay in the house that Jack built.

Mark how the Rat's felonious fangs invadeThe golden stores in John's pavilion laid.

This is the cat that chased the rat
that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

Anon, with velvet foot and Tarquin strides,Subtle Grimalkin to his quarry glides—Grimalkin grim, that slew the fierce rodentWhose tooth insidious Johann's sackcloth rent.

This is the dog that worried the cat
That chased the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Lo! now the deep-mouthed canine foe's assault,That vexed the avenger of the stolen malt,Stored in the hallowed precincts of that hallThat rose complete at Jack's creative call.

This is the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That chased the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Here stalks the impetuous Cow with crumpled horn,Whereon the exacerbating hound was torn,Who bayed the feline slaughter-beast that slewThe Rat predaceous, whose keen fangs ran throughThe textile fibers that involved the grainThat lay in Hans' inviolate domain.

This is the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That chased the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Here walks forlorn the Damsel, crowned with rue,Lactiferous spoils from vaccine dugs, who drewOf that corniculate beast whose tortuous hornTossed to the clouds, in fierce vindictive scorn,The harrowing hound, whose braggart bark and stirArched the lithe spine and reared the indignant furOf Puss, that with verminicidal clawStruck the weird Rat, in whose insatiate mawLay reeking malt, that erst in Ivan's courts we saw
Robed in senescent garb that seems in soothToo long a prey to Chronos' iron tooth.

This is the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That chased the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Behold the man whose amorous lips incline,Full with young Eros' osculative sign,To the lorn maiden whose lact-albic hands,Drew albu-lactic wealth from lacteal glandsOf that immortal bovine, by whose hornDistort, to realm ethereal was borneThe beast catulean, vexer of that slyUlysses quadrupedal, who made dieThe old mordacious Rat, that dared devourAntecedaneous Ale, in John's domestic bower.

This is the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That chased the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Lo, here, with hirsute honors doffed, succinctOf saponaceous locks, the Priest who linkedIn Hymen's golden bands the torn unthrift,Whose means exiguous stared from many a rift,Even as he kissed the virgin all forlorn,Who milked the cow with implicated horn,
Who in fine wrath the canine torturer skied,That dared to vex the insidious muricide,Who let the auroral effluence through the peltOf the sly Rat that robbed the palace Jack had built.

This is the rooster that crowed in the morn
That woke the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That chased the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

The loud cantankerous Shanghai comes at last,Whose shouts arouse the shorn ecclesiast,Who sealed the vows of Hymen's sacrament,To him who robed in garments indigent,Exosculates the damsel lachrymose,The emulgator of that horned brute morose,That tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that kiltThe Rat that ate the malt, that lay in the house that Jack built.