The crazy old Vinegar Man is dead! He never had missed a day before! Somebody went to his tumble-down shed, by the Haunted House, and forced the door. There in the litter of his pungent pans, the murky mess of his mixing place, -- Deep, sticky spiders and empty cans -- with the same old frown on his sour old face. "Vinegar-Vinegar-Vinegar Man! Face-us-and-chase-us-and-catch-if-you-can! Pepper for a tongue! Pickle for a nose! Stick a pin in him and vinegar flows! Glare-at-us-swear-at-us-catch-if-you-can! Ketch-up-and-chow-chow-and-Vinegar-Man!" Nothing but recipes and worthless junk; greasy old records of paid and due; But, down in the depths of a battered trunk, a queer, quaint valentine torn in two -- Red hearts and arrows, and silver lace, and a prim, dim, ladylike script that said -- (Oh, Vinegar Man, with the sour old face!) -- "With dearest love, from Ellen to Ned!" "Steal-us-and-peel-us-and-drown-us-in-brine! He pickles his heart in" -- @3a valentine!@1 "Vinegar for blood! Pepper for his tongue! Stick a pin in him and" -- @3once he was young!@1 "Glare-at-us-swear-at-us-catch-if-you-can!" -- "With dearest love" -- to the Vinegar Man! Dingy little books of profit and loss (died about Saturday, so they say) And a queer, quaint valentine, torn across . . . torn, but it never was thrown away! "With dearest love from Ellen to Ned" -- "Old Pepper Tongue! Pickles his heart in brine!" The Vinegar Man is a long time dead: he died when he tore his valentine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY (FROM A WESTERNER'S POINT OF VIEW) by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR TO A STEAM ROLLER by MARIANNE MOORE TO MISS RIGBY, ON HER ATTENDANCE UPON HER MOTHER AT BUXTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD PSALM 18. DILIGAM TE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE WHITEHAVEN HARBOUR by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN THE TURKISH LADY by THOMAS CAMPBELL TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE STONE-CUTTER by EDWARD CARPENTER |