I can't pretend to have read very much Wolfe - in fact, this is about the
only poem I have read - finding it in anthology long ago. But this is a poem
I've never been able to forget, not only because the wonderful combination
of short lines and a simple rhyme pattern clings to me and makes me tingle
all over rather as though a whole host of laughing squirrels were chattering
away inside me, but also because it so wonderfully exposes the hypocrisy of
organised religion. Whenever someone asks me to explain the meaning of
'tongue in cheek', I have an urge to quote this to them.