The “Childe Harold” metre is comically reproduced and ridiculed in “Arcades Ambo,” where Mr. C. S. Calverley thus addresses the beadles of the Burlington Arcade:—
Why are ye wandering aye ’twixt porch and porch,
Thou and thy fellow—when the pale stars fade
At dawn, and when the glow-worm lights her torch,
O Beadle of the Burlington Arcade?
—Who asketh why the Beautiful was made?
A wan cloud drifting o’er the waste of blue,
The thistledown that floats above the glade,
The lilac blooms of April—fair to view,
And naught but fair are these; and such, I ween, are you.