Classic Poem

Deflective rhythm under seas
Where Sappho tuned the snarling air;
A shifting of the spectral lines
Grown red with gravity and wear.

New systems of coordinates
Disturb the Sunday table-cloth.
Celestine yawns. Sir Oliver
Hints of the jaguar and sloth.

A chord of the eleventh shrieks
And slips beyond the portico.
The night contracts. A warp in space
Has rumors of Correggio.

Lights. Mrs. Blumenthal expands;
Diaphragm and diastole.
The rector brightens. Tea is served;
Euclid supplanted by the sole.