A friend of mine, new, true, and rare,
And all unlike the common form;
Who leaves me when my sky is fair,
And reappears in days of storm.
This almost equals that other quatrain, more ancient still, signed by the good abbé Delille—
This precious, supple instrument, confect
Of the whale’s bone, and of the silkworm’s grave,
With outstretched wing, my brow will oft protect
From the wet onslaught of the pluvial wave.
Have we not here Academic verse well made for the Umbrellas of the Academicians!