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The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
Her native chauffeur waited in the breeze
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
To break a rule Britannia's might might waive
The peasants's skirts on rainy days she'd tress
With gravity at gravity's great cog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
The Taj Mahal has trinkets spice and gum
For Europe's glory while Fate's harpies strum


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.