Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
IV. Wooing and WinningPopping Corn
AnonymousA
John Styles and Susan Cutter—
John Styles as fat as any ox,
And Susan fat as butter.
And raked and stirred the fire,
And talked of different kinds of corn,
And hitched their chairs up nigher.
Then John he shook the popper,
Till both their faces grew as red
As saucepans made of copper.
All kinds of fun a-poking,
While he haw-hawed at her remarks,
And she laughed at his joking.
John’s mouth was like a hopper—
And stirred the fire, and sprinkled salt,
And shook and shook the popper.
And still the corn kept popping;
It struck eleven, and then struck twelve,
And still no signs of stopping.
The corn did pop and patter—
Till John cried out, “The corn ’s a-fire!
Why, Susan, what ’s the matter?”
You ’ll die of indigestion;
I ’m sick of all this popping corn—
Why don’t you pop the question?”