Poem by Norman Rowland Gale

Revenge

    Last week, when conning Cicero
      In New Big School,
    Smith called me, by a paraphrase,
      A senseless mule:
    I wasn't sharp enough just then
      To answer, Jack,
    That pots had oft been known to call
      The kettles black!

    And in the Close the other day
      He called me 'Muff!'
    I think I've borne his impudence
      Quite long enough!
    From length to length abusive men
      Can quickly pass,
    So I was hardly staggered when
      He called me 'Ass!'

    But in the nets on Friday eve
      I long did toil
    To make old Smith rub in at night
      St. Jacob's Oil!
    If on the Smithian shins remains
      An unbruised inch
    My name is not Bartholomew
      Ezekiel Finch!

1. Up at Lords
2. The Church Cricketant
3. On the Spot
4. A Boundary
5. Five Years After

Eliza Acton Revenge ("I would not, in the wildness of revenge")

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