The pearls and gold and barbarous luxury,
Used to show also a white skeleton,—
To make life meeker in the sight of death,
To make joy sweeter by the thought thereof,—
So our new kings in their high banqueting,
With the electric lustre unforeseen,
And unimagined costliness of flowers;
Rich wines of price and food as rare as gems,
And all the wondrous waste of artifice;
Midst high-bred elegance and jewelled ease