No, this is not the complaint of an embattled feminist but of one of the foremost love poets of the twentieth century.

One may suspect that Robert Graves is not being altogether serious! (From the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, £17.99.)

A SLICE OF WEDDING CAKE

Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls

Married impossible men?

Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,

And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.

Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic,

Foul-tempered or depraved

(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world

How well women behave, and always have behaved).

Impossible men: idle, illiterate,

Self-pitying, dirty, sly,

For whose appearance even in City parks

Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.

Has God's supply of tolerable husbands

Fallen , in fact, so low?

Or do I always over-value woman

At the expense of man?

Do I?

It might be so.