If tangled tresses ever catch the eye, one should take it to be some deliberate policy or strategy, and only that which flashes rarely like lightning should be regarded as electric light.

In this delightfully satirical couplet, the poet playfully clashes classical romantic clichés with the awkward mechanics of modern life. The beloved's traditionally enchanting, tangled curls are no longer seen as a sweet mystery of love, but rather as some calculated diplomatic 'policy' or political scheme. Meanwhile, those rare, lightning-quick glimpses of beauty are cheekily downgraded to erratic modern electric bulbs—gently mocking how modern cynicism strips the magic right out of old-world romance.