Honeymoonlight

2005, Edward Lear, Peter Swaab, Over the land and over the sea Dancing in the honeymoonlight which bathes the poem, the Owl and the Pussy-cat more wistfully, but less pessimistically, get on terms with another Victorian classic, Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach'. Arnold's is also a seaside honeymoon poem, his newlyweds watch 'ignorant armies clash by night' instead of dancing by the light of the moon.

When her husband joins her / for breakfast, she smiles / the guilty smile of the unfaithful. / Yet does she notice / that the honeymoonlight / has left a few blonde hairs / clinging to his shoulder?