Norman was, of course, a

Conquered Byzantine redone

By William the Decorator

In Hunnish hues, slow

Balustrades overhanging a

Ravennoid mosaic stairsweep

Of elegantine and travail,

Down which we foresaw

The hastings of Blue Ann

(In all those ways she hath)

En route from Avon to

Revelation: a second-hand

Apocalypse, her pestilences

Seeming trivial beside the

Placental gnawings of this

Conscientious tattooed whelping

Boy but a dragoon's tooth removed

From San Sebastian, yet every

Bit as lively on the griddle.

At the end, we were forced

To baste him for his hemming,

Take him up a smudgeon higher

Than his eyebrows would acknowledge

And set him curbly out for cartage

When the mimesweepers came about.