And gazed at his work with a thoughtful eye;

"It is good," he murmured, "yet not quite good,"

He had labelled it Midsummer Eve in a Wood,

But the gods knew why.

A lady's eyes and a calf-topped boot,

And a ticket (punched) for the Highgate Tube,

He had painted there, with some crimson fruit

And a couple of uptorn elms, each root

A perfect cube.

"It is better than all those beastly Dutch