100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
The answer is they could be twins full-grown
The understanding critic firstly sees
Which neither time nor tide can long postpone
O Parthenon you hold the charger's strings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
The peasants's skirts on rainy days she'd tress
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Lobsters for sale must be our apologue
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
A wise loaf always knows its humblest crumb


Raymond Queneau

Translation to English by Stanley Chapman
found in "Oulipo Compendium"
Atlas 1998, ISBN 0-947757-96-1

Idea and implementation by Magnus Bodin 1997
Produced in the wonderful country of Sweden.