Single Malts - and other odd Musings

I Do Not Like Thee Saffron Creek


I do not like thee, Saffron Creek
The reason why - I will here speak
(For Xmas is not yet begun
and I think your decor is no fun
wait a bit and in December 
this Holiday we can then remember)
For this I think- and think to wreak
I do not like thee Saffron Creek

The poem- that I've butchered is said to have been written by satirical English poet Tom Brown in 1680
The anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme is that when Brown was a student at the Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief. The dean of Christ Church, John Fell, 1625–1686), who later went on to become the Bishop of Oxford, expelled Brown; but offered to take him back if he passed a test. If Brown could extemporaneously translate the thirty-second epigram of Martial, (a well known Roman epigramist), his expulsion would be cancelled. The epigram in Latin is as follows:

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.

Brown made the impromptu English translation which became the verse:

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why - I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.

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