As | The Poetry Foundation

As naught gives way to aught

and oxhide gives way to chain mail

and byrnie gives way to battle-ax

and Cavalier gives way to Roundhead

and Cromwell Road gives way to the Connaught

and I Am Curious (Yellow) gives way to I Am Curious (Blue)

and barrelhouse gives way to Frank’N’Stein

and a pint of Shelley plain to a pint of India Pale Ale

I give way to you.

As bass gives way to baritone

and hammock gives way to hummock

and Hoboken gives way to Hackensack

and bread gives way to reed bed

and bald eagle gives way to Theobald Wolfe Tone

and the Undertones give way to Siouxsie Sioux

and DeLorean, John, gives way to Deloria, Vine,

and Pierced Nose to Big Stomach

I give way to you.

As vent gives way to Ventry

and the King of the World gives way to Finn MacCool

and phone gives way to fax

and send gives way to sned

and Dagenham gives way to Coventry

and Covenanter gives way to caribou

and the caribou gives way to the carbine

and Boulud’s cackamamie to the cock-a-leekie of Boole

I give way to you.

As transhumance gives way to trance

and shaman gives way to Santa

and butcher’s string gives way to vacuum pack

and the ineffable gives way to the unsaid

and pyx gives way to monstrance

and treasure aisle gives way to need-blind pew

and Calvin gives way to Calvin Klein

and Town and Country Mice to Hanta

I give way to you.

As Hopi gives way to Navaho

and rug gives way to rag

and Pax Vobiscum gives way to Tampax

and Tampa gives way to the water bed

and The Water Babies gives way to Worstward Ho

and crapper gives way to loo

and spruce gives way to pine

and the carpet of pine needles to the carpetbag

I give way to you.

As gombeen-man gives way to not-for-profit

and soft soap gives way to Lynn C. Doyle

and tick gives way to tack

and Balaam’s Ass gives way to Mister Ed

and Songs of Innocence gives way to The Prophet

and single-prop Bar-B-Q gives way to twin-screw

and the Salt Lick gives way to the County Line

and “Mending Wall” gives way to “Build Soil”

I give way to you.

As your hummus gives way to your foul madams

and your coy mistress gives way to “The Flea”

and flax gives way to W. D. Flackes

and the living give way to the dead

and John Hume gives way to Gerry Adams

and Television gives way to U2

and Lake Constance gives way to the Rhine

and the Rhine to the Zuider Zee

I give way to you.

As dutch treat gives way to french leave

and spanish fly gives way to Viagra

and slick gives way to slack

and the local fuzz give way to the Feds

and Machiavelli gives way to make-believe

and Howards End gives way to A Room with a View

and Wordsworth gives way to “Woodbine

Willie” and stereo Nagra to quad Niagara

I give way to you.

As cathedral gives way to cavern

and cookie cutter gives way to cookie

and the rookies give way to the All-Blacks

and the shad give way to the smoke shed

and the roughshod give way to the Black Horse avern

that still rings true

despite that T being missing from its sign

where a little nook gives way to a little nookie

when I give way to you.

That Nanook of the North should give way to Man of Aran

as ling gives way to cod

and cod gives way to kayak

and Camp Moosilauke gives way to Club Med

and catamite gives way to catamaran

and catamaran to aluminum canoe

is symptomatic of a more general decline

whereby a cloud succumbs to a clod

and I give way to you.

For as Monet gives way to Juan Gris

and Juan Gris gives way to Joan Miró

and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gives way to Miramax

and the Volta gives way to Travolta, swinging the red-hot lead,

and Saturday Night Fever gives way to Grease

and the Greeks give way to you know who

and the Roman IX gives way to the Arabic 9

and nine gives way, as ever, to zero

I give way to you.

Source: Moy Sand and Gravel (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2002)