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From The World's Wit and Humor, Volume IV, American, New York :  The Review of Reviews Company, 1910; p. 272.


272

C. F. Lummis
(b. 1859)*

A Poe-m of Passion

IT was many and many a year ago,
    On an island near the sea,
That a maiden lived whom you mightn’t know
    By the name of Cannibalee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
    Than a passionate fondness for me.


I was a child, and she was child —
    Tho’ her tastes were adult Feejee —
But she loved with a love that was more than love,
    My yearning Cannibalee,
With a love that could take me roast or fried
    Or raw, as the case might be.


And that is the reason that long ago,
    In that island near the sea,
I had to turn the tables and eat
    My ardent Cannibalee —
Not really because I was fond of her,
    But to check her fondness for me.


But the stars never rise but I think of the size
    Of my hot-potted Cannibalee,
And the moon never stares but it brings me nightmares
    Of my spare-rib Cannibalee;
And all the night-tide she is restless inside,
Is my still indigestible dinner-belle bride,
In her pallid tomb, which is Me,
In her solemn sepulcher, Me.

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*  About the time this poem was written, the public became aware of the cannabilism occurring in the Fiji Islands. To read the classic spooky poem of lost love which Lummis parodies, see Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, on this site. — Elf.Ed.







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