Norman Rowland Gale

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!