Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Videos
Resources
Syllable Counter
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Quotes
Short Stories
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 216.73.216.38
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
THE OLD GERMAN PROBLEM The burghers of Hamburg are themselves usually Hamburgers, so there! The burghers of Frankfurt are themselves usually Frankfurters, it‘s only fair! But it’s possible to meet Frankfurter Hamburger burghers And you can also find Hamburger Frankfurter burghers Hamburger burghers can eat hamburgers, a delicious dish And Frankfurter burghers can eat frankfurters, if they wish But hamburgers can be made in Frankfurt: they are not horrible And frankfurters can be made in Hamburg : it is easily possible So Frankfurter burghers can eat Hamburger frankfurters, with salt And Hamburger burghers can eat Frankfurter hamburgers, without halt No doubt Frankfurter burghers can also eat Frankfurter frankfurters, ‘sright And Hamburger burghers can also eat Hamburger hamburgers all night But what puzzles me, and maybe you too, God knows, Is what to make of these German guys who like to eat as follows: Frankfurter Hamburger burghers eating Hamburger frankfurters Or Hamburger Frankfurter burghers eating Frankfurter hamburgers Too complicated? Ok, try a piece o’ Pisa Pizza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NOTES Hamburger : adjective derived from Hamburg, or a meat dish named after the city Frankfurter : adjective derived from Frankfurt, or a meat dish named after the city Burgher : old-fashioned name for a city citizen ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. *Entered in no contest, because no one has organized a silly GERMAN FOOD contest yet. ** I am aware that some geographical zealots object to my poems on gastronomical grounds, and some gastronomical zealots object to them on geographical grounds. My apologies to all.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required