Fair Poesie’s anointed,
Has, like a brick, the Atlantic
Crossed, to be disappointed.
Poor Oscar Wilde, æsthetic chylde;
The Atlantic ought to know it!
A fault so grave to misbehave,
And disappoint a poet!”
He went to Omaha, where, under the auspices of the Social Art Club, he delivered a lecture on “Decorative Art,” in the course of which he described his impressions of many American houses as being “illy designed, decorated shabbily, and in bad taste, and filled with furniture that was not honestly made, and was out of character.” This statement gave rise to the following verses:—
“What a shame and what a pity,
In the streets of London City