And have you ever seen what a lot of 'w's' there is in that line. Just listen:—
The wild waves whist!
I wonder if that's done on purpose?"
"Of course it is!" Harry said with a note of superiority in his voice. "That's what they call 'alliteration!' They have a dictionary and put down all the nice words beginning with one letter and then they start writing poetry. It's very clever!"
"Yes, it is too clever!" agreed Philip, embarrassingly conscious of a whole field of technical difficulty yet to be ploughed before attaining the happy position of a Tennyson. "Now she didn't tell us who wrote that poem? Who was it?"
"That poetry!" stressed Harry, with an ironic reminiscence of an error not long thrown over by his friend, "was by William Shakespeare. Better than Tennyson they do say!"
"Better than Tennyson!" Philip repeated with something of horror at the irreverence. "But Tennyson was a Lord!"
"Well, Lords are not everything! Some Lords' grandfathers were just beer-house men!" exclaimed a democratic Harry.
"What was this Shakespeare, anyhow? I think we used to do a recitation by him all about stiffening the sinews, didn't we?"
"He was in a stable, and pinched rabbits from a woman called 'Lowsy Lucy'! That's his life story!"