STAR-GAZING

Astronomers, working like niggers,

Neck-deep in morasses of figures,

From Cricketing vainly would wean us

With diagrams, even of Venus.

We rather would watch a good bowler

Than Bears, be they little or Polar;

And bar, though of masculine genus,

Wise talk on the Transit of Venus.

When Ladies at Lords saunter gaily

With Parsons ( not musing on Paley ),

Old friend of my boyhood, between us,

Then, then is the Transit of Venus!