It is a cross between alovepoem to Ms Lalonde and a city-symphony documentary, stitched in with a light-hearted parody of the social-enquiry film (subjects are shown eating their breakfast egg in all manner of ways).
And it is because he understood that people live each day within a variety of value systems that he could write a great poem about how two people could allow appetite, seemingly rational argument and love to lead them to disobey a divine command.
The most famous of the poem's many plotlines is the story of Orlando, a paladin who struggles with his love for Angelica, a woman who loves someone else.