"COUSIN Edward, what do these scientists mean, With all their big words and new fangles? This morning at breakfast they talked a whole hour Of parallactical angles." "Well, Lu, we will demonstrate here on the beach, In a manner strikingly practical; You're the moon, I the earth, and Simpkins a star; The angle is styled parallactical. "The farther we get from our star, you perceive, The shorter this line, which the base is, Till he melts in the infinite azure, and then, There's no space at all between faces." "Oh, Edward, how could you! and Simpkins right there, With his handkerchief over his lips; What will the man think?" "Oh, never mind, Lu, He'll think it a lunar eclipse." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE ISLAND OF THE SCOTS by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN LEISTON ABBEY by BERNARD BARTON ASSASSINS by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT A CLASSICAL CONTRAST by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS O IS FOR OPEN by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES |