A RECIPE. FOR A SALAD

To make this condiment, your poet begs

The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled eggs;

 Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve,

 Smoothness and softness to the salad give;

Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,

And, half suspected, animate the whole;

Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,

Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;

But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault

To add a double quantity of salt;

Four times the spoon with oil from Lucca crown.

 And twice with vinegar procured from town;

And, lastly, o'er the flavored compound toss

A magic soupcuion of anchovy sauce.

Oh, green and glorious! oh, herbaceous treat!

 'Twould tempt a dying anchorite to eat:

Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,

 And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl!

Serenely full, the epicure would say,

"Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today!"

Sidney Smith.