2 DECEMBER 1989, Page 42

The Edward Lear Poem

He kept his wife in a box he did And she never complained though the neighbours did Because of the size of the box and the way He tried to behave in a neighbourly way But smiled too much of a satisfied smile For a body to know what to make of his smile.

Then there came such a terrible cry one night Of the kind you don't like to hear in the night Though the silence that followed was broken at last By the blows of a hammer which seemed to last For ever and ever and ever and ever And no one set eyes on that man again ever. John Mole