To Mr. Frank Croxion
"The Height of the Ridiculous" (1909)
Song for Baritone 
Words by Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1841-1935 
Music by Charles Henry Hart, 1847-1918 

Cincinnati: John Church Company 
Plate No. 18114-4
[Source: http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1889]

1. 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 gen’ral 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. 

2. “These to the printer,” I exclaimed, 
And in my hum’rous 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. 

3. He read the next; the grin grew broad, 
And shot from ear to ear; 
He read the third; a cluckling 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 watch’d that wretched man, 
And since, I never dare to write 
As funny as I can.