There was an Old Man of Vesuvius

There was an Old Man of Vesuvius… by Edward Lear

No. 56 from A Book of Nonsense (1846)

Picture by Edward Lear

 * * *

 There was an Old Man of Vesuvius,
 Who studied the works of Vitruvius;
 When the flames burnt his book,
 To drinking he took,
 That morbid Old Man of Vesuvius.

 <Publ. 1846>