This is the dedication from Stephen Barr’s book Experiments in Topology, first published in Britain by John Murray in 1965.
Mathematicians, whose unwonted style
Avoids plain English with the nice excuse:
Readers must learn their language – can beguile
The metaphoric-minded, & induce
Intoxication with ideas as such.
Numbers set indiscretely in a row
Give topological spaces just as much
As flights of martins in a garden show
Regard for logic. But the martins know
Down is not Up. Topologists ignore
Ignore North or South or whether on the floor.
Each has his points; not those who would, instead,
Rather be highfalutin than be read.
