1The acid tongue with gourmet’s expertise
2his exaltation shocked both youth and crone
3the understanding critic firstly sees
4and loudly sang off-key without a tone

5To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
6filching the lolly country thrift helped save
7they both are right not unformed smatterings
8to break a rule Britannia’s might might waive

9The peasants’s skirts on rainy days she’d tress
10with gravity at gravity’s great cog
11and played their mountain croquet jungle chess

12We’ll suffocate before the epilogue
13suits lisping Spanish tongues for whom say some
14the best of all things to an end must come