Let’s pen a requiem to the hatbox,
for such a case is now a dying breed.
Prevailing trends allow for bare, flat locks
and softer crowns. The new girl has no need.

Young ladies who like to seem informed
on latest styles and all that’s marked smart-bred
will find their luggage choices much reformed,
but dash it all, a lass must keep her head!

She cannot wait for early spinsterhood
for leave to lug so old fashioned a tin.
Fruits of decapitation are a good
that want a round, deep case to haul them in.

Thus, miss must turn mademoiselle; her piece
must cross, Dover to Calais, in a valise!