SUNDAY TEA-TIME

There is a noise of winkles on the air,

Muffins and winkles rattle down the road,

The sluggish road, whose hundred houses stare

One on another in after-dinner gloom.

"Peace, perfect Peace!" wails an accordion,

"Ginger, you're barmy!" snarls a gramophone.

A most unhappy place, this leafless Grove

In the near suburbs; not a place for tears

Nor for light laughter, for all life is chilled