Parody (8)
Plain Geometry
Emma Rounds
'Twas Euclid and the theorem pi
Did plane and solid in the text,
All parallel were the radii,
And the ang-gulls convex'd.
"Beware the Wentworth-Smith, my son,
And the Loci that vacillate;
Beware the Axiom, and shun
The faithless Postulate."
He took his Waterman in hand;
Long time the proper proof he sought;
Then rested he by the XYZ
And sat awhile in thought.
And as in inverse thought he sat
A brilliant proof, in lines of flame,
All neat and trim, it came to him.
Tangenting as it came.
"AB, CD," reflected he--
The Waterman went snicker-snack--
He Q. E. D.-d, and, proud indeed,
He trapezoided back.
"And hast thou proved the 29th?
Come to my arms, my radius boy!
Oh good for you! O one point two!"
He rhombused in his joy.
'Twas Euclid and the theorem pi
Did plane and solid in the text,
All parallel were the radii,
And the ang-gulls convex'd.
Rounds, Emma, "Plain Geometry". In Creative Youth, Hughes Mearns, © 1925 by Doubleday & Company, Inc., New York.
Also in
Fadiman, Clifton (ed.), Fantasia Mathematica, © 1958 Simon & Schuster, Inc. Published in 1997 by Copernicus, on imprint of Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. ISBN 0-387-94931-3.
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