They left their home in silence by the once convivial door;
And from that hour those Bachelors were never heard of more.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, whose marvelous mastery of the lyric is well known, is not so noted as a humorist.
Yet his parodies are among the finest in the language. His day was the Golden Age of Parody, and the writers who achieved it were true poets and true wits.
This parody of Tennyson is alike a perfect mimicry of sound and sense.
THE HIGHER PANTHEISM IN A NUTSHELL
One, who is not, we see: but one, whom we see not, is;
Surely this is not that: but that is assuredly this.
What, and wherefore, and whence? for under is over and under;
If thunder could be without lightning, lightning could be without thunder.