Sir John Bowring

To Bowring, man of many tongues,
(All over tongues like rumour)
This tributary verse belongs
To paint his learned humour;
All kinds of gabs he talks, I wis,
From Latin down to Scottish;
As fluent as a parrot is,
But far more Polly-glottish!
No grammar too abstruse he meets
However dark and verby,--
He gossips Greek about the streets,
And often Russ--in urbe--:
Strange tongues whate'er you do them call,
In short the man is able
To tell you what's o'clock in all
The dialects of Babel.
Take him on 'Change; try Portuguese,
The Moorish and the Spanish,
Polish, Hungarian, Tyrolese,
The Swedish and the Danish;
Try him with these and fifty such,
His skill will ne'er diminish,
Although you should begin in Dutch
And end (like me) in Finnish.