Ballad of the Presidents: Van Buren to Tyler

As Jackson stepped back from the field of contention
Van Buren stepped forward with noble intention
Thought clever and cunning, a wily old fox
Van Buren prepared to deliver some knocks

But Van was the one who did feel the earth shaking
By markets financial soon set all a-quaking
When with a great bursting a real-estate bubble
Collapsed and left fortunes of many in rubble

Van Buren thus earned the unwelcome distinction
Of being first president doomed to extinction
By after-effects of a stock market blast
Van B was the first but would not be the last

Harrison Esq. was born in a mansion
And yet in an age of incessant expansion
He ran on his rep as an Indian fighter
Log cabin his home and his tipple hard cider

The oldest so far was this Tippecanoe
And one of the endlessly wordiest too
And shortest to live much beyond the inaugural
Soon laid to his rest in a White House first funeral
 
A president dies; and then what’s his successor
A genuine prez, or some officer lesser?
John Tyler full boldly asserted his claim:
“I’m really the prez and am not just in name”

Tyler’s audacity wasn’t esteemed
By those whose ambition still ardently gleamed
His party, the Whigs, brusquely gave him the boot
His tenure soon swiftly descended the chute