There is one of those animated versions by Jim Clark available on You Tube for this not-very-well-known poem. I think he must have the same poetry books as I have,
Plaintive plea of a non-smoker
I’m not a smoker but I do not hate
My fellowmen who seem to feel a need,
Quite irresistible, to cultivate
The weed.
I’m tolerance itself. I would not bate
The smoker’s freedom by one jot or tittle,
But could he not reciprocate
A little?
What quirk of mind is it that makes him able
(And for the moment I’m no longer joking)
To smoke in perfect peace beneath a label,
‘No Smoking’?
Is it unreasonable to deplore
Effrontery that nothing will abash
And that allows him to bestrew the floor
With ash?
Forgive me if I seem a heretic.
I might have paid my homage to a queen
But not the satyr that he served – Old Nick
-otine
Kennedy Williamson
Link
"Plaintive plea of a nonsmoker" by Kennedy Williamson Poem animation
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