Cold are the crabs that crawl on yonder hills,

Colder the cucumbers that grow beneath,

And colder still the brazen chops that wreathe

The tedious gloom of philosophic pills!

For when the tardy film of nectar fills

The simple bowls of demons and of men, or ample?

There lurks the feeble mouse, the homely hen,

And there the porcupine with all her quills.

Yet much remains – to weave a solemn strain

That lingering sadly – slowly dies away,

Daily departing with departing day.

A pea-green gamut on a distant plain

When wily walrusses in congresses meet —

Such such is life —