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Here is an example of spoonerism:
"Half-warmed fish, for half-warmed wish
The lord is a shoving leopard.
Kinkering Kongs their titles take.
The cat popped on its drawers.
You are occupewing my pie.
I was sewn into this sheet."
A Gordian Knot is referring to a task that is difficult to untie.
Gordius, father of Midas, was a Phrygian peasant. The Phrygians had been told by an oracle that in the time of sedition their troubles would be dissolved if the first man approaching the temple of Jupiter in a wagon would be king if he could untie the Gordian Knot.
Alexander, the conqueror, said he would perform the task and cut it in two with his sword.
In Shakespeare's
"Turn him to my cause of policy,
The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter."
Praising a teacake recipe by Sally Lunn, it was published in 1796 in the Bath Chronicle (in England).
Nor more I heed the muffin's zest,
The Yorkshire cake or bun,
Sweet Muse of Pastry! teach me how
To make a Sally Lunn.
Take thou of luscious wholesome cream
What the full pint contains,
Warm as the native blood which flows
In youthful virgins' veins.
Hast thou not seen in olive rind,
The wall-tree's rounded nut?
Of juicy butter just its size
In thy clean pastry put.
Has thou not seen the golden yolk,
In crystal shrine Immur'd;
Whence brooked o'er by fostering wing,
Forth springs the warrior bird?
Oh! Save three birds from savage man
And combat's sanguine hour;
Crush in three yolks the seeds of life
And on the butter pour.
Take then a cup that holds the juice
Fam'd China's fairest pride:
Let foaming yeast its concave fill,
And froth adown its side.
But seek thou, first, for neatness' sake
The Naiad's crystal stream:
Swift let it round the concave play,
And o'er the surface gleam.
Of salt, more keen than that of Greece,
Which cooks, not poets use,
Sprinkle thou them with sparing hand,
And thro' the mass diffuse.
Then let it rest, disturb'd no more,
Safe in its steady seat,
Till thrice Time's warning bell hath struck
Nor yet the hour compleat.
And left Fancy revel free,
By no stern rule confin'd,
On glitt'ring tin, in varied form,
Each Sally Lunn be twin'd.
But heed thou well to lift thy thought
To me by power divine;
Then to the oven's glowing mouth
The wondrous work consign.
Dr. A.O. Goldsmith is a retired director of the School of Journalism, Louisiana State University.
