From Rude Rural Rhymes by Bob Adams, New York: The Macmillan Company; 1925; p. 69.
GARLIC
Our garden crops have come from far
Where other climes and peoples are.
From mountain valleys of Peru
The snappy snap bean comes to you.
In Mexico sprang Indian corn,
In India the cuke was born.
The cabbage hails from Europe’s sea land,
Hot weather spinach from New Zealand.
But there’s one peppy garden plant
We natives mostly do not want.
When long of yore its fumes arose
And helped to shape the Roman nose
A favored food was garlic then
For fighting fowls and fighting men.
They mixed it with the warrior’s hash
And with the rooster’s morning mash.
It kept the legions primed for war
Till fear of Rome spread near and far,
And doubtless made game fighting cocks
Of pacifistic Plymouth Rocks.
A shrinking rabbit fed up thus
Would lick a hippopotamus.
Hence sprang old tales of sudden death
From dragons slaying with their breath.