Explore "Ballade of a Hardy Annual" by Franklin P. Adams on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Many a jest that refuses to die / Bobs up again as the seasons appear; / Deathless it hits us again in the eye -- / Changeless and dull as the calendar year. / Musty and mouldy and yellow and sere, / Stronger, withal, than the sturdiest oak; / Ancient and solemn and deadly and drear -- / Down with the grandmother-funeral joke!
Soon as the snow has forgotten to fly, / All through the day of the "leathery sphere," / Jokelets and pictures and verses we spy / All on the theme of the grandmother dear. / Bonnets, umbrellas, and buckets of beer / Please us and tickle us quite to the choke. / But -- on this matter our attitude's clear -- / Down with the grandmother-funeral joke!