Reading:
Lunch at the Athenaeum On enquiring whether guests may wear trainers when invited to lunch. In memory. E. F. ‘Not really stuffy, wear a jacket and perhaps a tie The place is pretty and the food is good, I’ve fixed it so we’re seated side-by-side And shoes are not inspected.’ I’m sure that when I get there I’ll enjoy I often wear a jacket; tie less often to be sure. Azure socks must serve to make my presence felt Since shoes are not inspected. ‘Lots of writers have belonged and poets too.’ De la Mare’s hung on the stairs, his voice long-since neglected I read him first in class when I was still a boy OM? CH? His shoes were surely not affected. True style is but the man himself Buffon averred. Naked truth is bared upon a single word. Who brought in this upstart from the hoi paloi Glottals stopped, vowels Battersea inflected? Henceforth, to spare this club of learned men From guests who sport their gaudy hose in order to annoy, We must be sure that at the door abhorrent ankles are rejected. And as for him ἄνοθος barbaroi, his dress may pass our code But with legs that look as if they’ve just been daubed with woad He’ll not get in till Christ is once again on earth detected!
Peter Lloyd Jones 