"THE PICKWICK PORTFOLIO"
    MAY 20, 18 
    POET'S CORNER 
    ANNIVERSARY ODE 
    Again we meet to celebrate     With badge and solemn rite,     Our fifty-second anniversary,     In Pickwick Hall, tonight.
    We all are here in perfect health,     None gone from our small band:
    Again we see each well-known face,     And press each friendly hand.
    Our Pickwick, always at his post,     With reverence we greet,     As, spectacles on nose, he reads     Our well-filled weekly sheet.
    Although he suffers from a cold,     We joy to hear him speak,     For words of wisdom from him fall,     In spite of croak or squeak.
    Old six-foot Snodgrass looms on high,     With elephantine grace,     And beams upon the company,     With brown and jovial face.
    Poetic fire lights up his eye,     He struggles 'gainst his lot.
    Behold ambition on his brow,     And on his nose, a blot.
    Next our peaceful Tupman comes,     So rosy, plump, and sweet,     Who chokes with laughter at the puns,     And tumbles off his seat.
    Prim little Winkle too is here,     With every hair in place,     A model of propriety,     Though he hates to wash his face.
    The year is gone, we still unite     To joke and laugh and read,     And tread the path of literature     That doth to glory lead.
    Long may our paper prosper well,     Our club unbroken be,     And coming years their blessings pour     On the useful, gay 'P.  C.'.
    A.  SNODGRASS