The Private Dining Room

by Ogden Nash 

Miss Rafferty wore taffeta,

Miss Cavendish wore lavender.

We ate pickerel and mackerel

And other lavish provender,

Miss Cavendish was Lalage,

Miss Rafferty was Barbara.

We gobbled pickled mackerel

And broke the candelabara,

Miss Cavendish in lavender,

In taffeta, Miss Rafferty,

The girls in taffeta lavender,

And we, of course, in mufti.

Miss Rafferty wore taffeta,

The taffeta was lavender,

Was lavend, lavender, lavenderest,

As the wine improved the provender.

Miss Cavendish wore lavender,

The lavender was taffeta.

We boggled mackled pickerel,

And bumpers did we quaffeta.

And Lalage wore lavender,

And lavender wore Barbara,

Rafferta taffeta Cavender lavender

Barbara abracadabra.

Miss Rafferty in taffeta

Grew definitely raffisher.

Miss Cavendish in lavender

Grew less and less stand-offisher.

With Lalage and Barbara

We grew a little pickereled,

We ordered Mumm and Roederer

Because the bubbles tickereled.

But lavender and taffeta

Were gone when we were soberer.

I haven’t thought for thirty years
Of Lalage and Barbara.