There was a clockmaker of Prague,
master of the spring, gear, and cog.
To thwart a reprise,
they poked out his eyes,
that mean Old Town Council of Prague.

Note: There is some disagreement as to whether this actually happened, but it makes an intriguing story. i.e. The town government blinding a craftsman with red-hot pokers to prevent him from building a more beautiful clock for another town. [It reminds me of a similar story (or, possibly, old wives’ tale) about Shah Jahan ordering the Taj Mahal craftsmen’s hands cut off so that they could never eclipse that structure’s beauty.] The rest of the Prague clockmaker’s story is that he returned to his creation and, despite his blindness, smashed up the mechanisms so badly that they couldn’t be repaired.