Pipit sate upright in her chair
Some distance from where I was sitting;
Views of the Oxford Colleges
Lay on the table, with the knitting.

Daguerreotypes and silhouettes,
Her grandfather and great great aunts,
Supported on the mantelpiece
An Invitation to the Dance.³

I shall not want Honour in Heaven
For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney⁴
And have talk with Coriolanus⁵
And other heroes of that kidney.

I shall not want Capital in Heaven
For I shall meet Sir Alfred Mond.⁶
We two shall lie together, lapt
In a five per cent. Exchequer Bond.

I shall not want Society in Heaven,
Lucretia Borgia⁷ shall be my Bride;
Her anecdotes will be more amusing
Than Pipit’s experience could provide.

I shall not want Pipit in Heaven:
Madame Blavatsky⁸ will instruct me
In the Seven Sacred Trances;⁹
Piccarda de Donati¹⁰ will conduct me.

But where is the penny world¹¹ I bought
To eat with Pipit behind the screen?
The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golder’s Green;¹²

Where are the eagles and the trumpets?

Buried beneath some snow-deep Alps.
Over buttered scones and crumpets
Weeping, weeping multitudes
Droop in a hundred A.B.C.’s.¹³