Elgar's Crossword Poem by Neil Crawford

In the tiny house of Elgar's birth,
among the memorabilia,
we found a yellowed newpaper,
framed in a glass case.

The great man was, it seems, an inveterate
doodler - top hats on footballers, moustaches
on women, smoking pipes in children's mouths,
you know the sort of thing.

His crossword attempt caught my eye,
all clues but two completed.
We solved them in seconds..'Cabaret'
and 'Melancholy' being the evasive answers.

When time allowed conjecture
I thought it strange those eluded him,
given that he was a musical spirit
quite prone to bouts of sadness.