100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
A daring baron pockets precious Mings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
When dried the terrapin can naught express
In indian summers Englishmen drink grog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
In cognac brandy is Bacardi rum?


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.