Thou art old, my Paperknife, old and dented!
Yet hast served me well, since in Eighteen-sev'nty
I first saw thee, left in the railway-carriage,
Left by a maiden,
Who, beside her mother demurely seated,
Glanced in turn at Telegraph, Times and Standard ,
Or, above the Telegraph, Times or Standard ,
Let a look wander
Shyly forth 'neath eyelashes long and raven.
She, the unknown, alighted, but thee she left there,
Paperknife! Since then thou hast cut the leaves of
Homer and Virgil,
Lycophron, Sidonius Apollinaris,
Rhodian Apollonius, Egyptian Hermes,
Hegel and the twain Metamorphosistae,
Darwin and Ovid.