Astronomers, working like niggers,
Neck-deep in morasses of figures,
From Cricketing vainly would wean us
With diagrams, even of Venus.
We rather would watch a good bowler
Than Bears, be they little or Polar;
And bar, though of masculine genus,
Wise talk on the Transit of Venus.
When Ladies at Lords saunter gaily
With Parsons ( not musing on Paley ),
Old friend of my boyhood, between us,
Then, then is the Transit of Venus!