Email This PageSherkite Hoax Was a Poetry-Inspiring Incident
After reading the “The Great History Hoax of 1959” in the July Bulletin, I remember hearing about the Sherkite hoax when I was a student. It inspired me to write a few verses (with apologies to A.A. Milne), which I posted on one of the bulletin boards back then:
Mr. W asked
Mr. U, and
Mr. U asked
Mr. R:
“Have you any data on
The rare Sherkite sect?”
Mr. U asked Mr. R.
Mr. R
Said, “What’s that?
I’ll go and look it up.
It’s in
Beik and Lafore, I expect.”
Mr. R scratched
His head,
And shuffled through
His reference books.
“There’s certainly nothing here on
The so-called Sherkite sect.
I know that Booth
And Jezebel
Had much in common,
Yet—
I think our information is
Quite possibly
Defect.”
Mr. R called
A conclave, and
Said unto his
Colleagues,
“No authorities mention this
Mysterious Sherkite sect.
I’ve written to
Some experts, who
Are quite nonplussed
As we;
There’s been a little
Dirty work in
History 1, I suspect.”
The associates put
Their heads together
And issued a
communiqué:
“The theory of
The Sherkites we
Unanimously reject.
We’re sorry to disillusion
Those
Who wished to hear
Prof. Englehardt—
BUT
There is no such organization as the d—-d Sherkite sect!”
Judith Leeds Inskeep ’60
Gwynedd, Pa.
