The Height of the Ridiculous

I wrote some lines once on a time 

In wondrous merry mood, 

And thought, as usual, men would say 

They were exceeding good. 

They were so queer, so very queer, 

I laughed as I would die; 

Albeit, in the general way, 

A sober man am I. 

I called my servant, and he came; 

How kind it was of him 

To mind a slender man like me, 

He of the mighty limb. 

"These to the printer," I exclaimed, 

And, in my humorous way, 

I added, (as a trifling jest,) 

"There'll be the devil to pay." 

He took the paper, and I watched, 

And saw him peep within; 

At the first line he read, his face 

Was all upon the grin. 

He read the next; the grin grew broad, 

And shot from ear to ear; 

He read the third; a chuckling noise 

I now began to hear. 

The fourth; he broke into a roar; 

The fifth; his waistband split; 

The sixth; he burst five buttons off, 

And tumbled in a fit. 

Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye, 

I watched that wretched man, 

And since, I never dare to write 

As funny as I can.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes