Little Jack Horner pulled the wings
off birds and insects and such things,
attempting to discover why
the insects and the birds could fly.

He pulled to bits expensive toys
to find out what thing made the noise;
he could not eat a simple plum
without enquiring how it come.

Young Jack, a surgeon fresh from college,
held life synonymous with knowledge,
and knife in hand, with small compunction,
explored the function of a function.

Dr Horner, enquiring fellow,
observed that corpses turned quite yellow,
could not make love, embrace the arts,
when he'd laid out their private parts.

Impelled by a godlike discontent
he strove to find out what things meant,
trusting the last analysis
to justify God's artifice.

He died in hope of sure salvation
through bodily disintegration,
believing Zion was built on Styx
and Rome contrived by breaking bricks.