So he turned into a tea-shop—as he said, "like a silly fool"—
Which was patronised by the leaders of the ultra-Georgian school.
He ordered his tea and muffin, and, as he munched and sipped,
Strange scraps of conversation his errant fancy gripped,
Strange talk of form and metre, of "Wheels" and of Sherard Vines,
And scorn of Tennyson, Browning and Swinburne (of The Pines).
He listened awhile in silence, but at last the fire grew hot,
When he heard "The Lotus-Eaters" described as "luscious rot";
And he shouted out in the madness that is one of Truth's allies,
"Old Tennyson's little finger is thicker than all your thighs."