The Poet's Book Of Ironic Executions #1

A chancer once there was condemned to die,
Who told the King, that reprieved for a year,
He'd teach his horse to talk.
When asked just why,
He'd picked a pupil difficult to steer,
Even with spurs, at adverbs like to baulk?
He shrugged and said, "Why in a year what may!
I may die anyway, the King, a lance
Might perforate in war, the horse on hay,
Might choke, who can be sure to live another day,
And in a year the horse may talk perchance."
A year gone by he at the scaffold stood,
The stallion silent underneath his King,
The rope stretched taut, sent shivers through the wood,
The horse remarked, "Why there's a funny thing."