Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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FIFTEENTH - HUMOURIST

By P B Taylor

I

Lived in a strong seclusion, thoughts of an age far gone
Continued popularity matured aside your peaceful life
Special characters Ukridge and Psmith ever live on
Continuing the English accent around an American strife

Simple superb wordsmith never dull, the succinct craftsman
Unique comic novelist, isolated writers’ celebrity
A dialogue so spiced in an extra special brand
Of humour for an Englishman born of Victorian society

Possibly your most famous creations from our own time
Are omniscient Jeeves dumfounding Bertie Wooster
Former a debonair fixer servant so suave and fine
Latter an English dude forever never more the wiser

The nonagenarian master of upper-class comedy
Written in humour laughter a solid author’s remedy


II

Dominating a recent revival reawakening the scene
Disliking pretentious scribblers in the social show
Concentrating to create eccentric names and themes
Ideas of jolly pleasure and fun “don’t you know”

Trying to ignore and shut out events in the world outside
Satisfying the amusing, the best method of amusement
Such stories take much silent sweat self-confidence pride
As special inspiration to offer up so much enjoyment

Large grin spreads across your face playful from ear to ear
Wandering all around to contemplate verbal felicitations
Lost contemporary competitions gone with none to fear
As you are always the imaginative architect of precision

To now departed from your original world no longer a traveller
You’re still, old horse, the greatest English comic writer

PGW Harrogate September 1973