"The Shortest Day"

Short verse
    We need,
Most terse
    Indeed,
That it—
    This lay—
May fit
    This day.
Short sight
    Of sun.
Long night,
    Begun
At four,
    Sunshine
Once more
    At nine.
A. M.
    Meets eyes
Of them
    Who rise
If no
    Fog hide—
Then woe
    Betide;
The day
    That ought
To stay
    So short
A space
    Can't show
Its face
    Below.
But when
    It goes,
Why then
    One knows
New Year
    Will soon
Be here—
    Then June,
So bright!
    So sweet!
So light!
    We'll greet
The day
    That's long
With gay,
    Glad song—
Excessively long-footed verse will undoubtedly characterise what
            we say,
For Longfellow's longest lines skip along when we've long longed
            for the Longest Day.

—Punch, Dec. 24, 1892