THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES

                        Ladies, who there and back again still pace
                        On terraces close neighbouring the sea,
                        Fairies and giantesses. Vert-de-gris,
                        A foam of verdure billows round the place ;
                        Forbidding, proud, each woman-jewel’s grace
                        Stands upright on rich soil in shrubbery
                        Or tiny garden’s sun-nursed liberty—
                        Young mothers and grown sisters whose deep gaze
                        Far pilgrimages have with ‘by-gones’ filled,
                        Sultanas, princesses, tyrannical
                        In bearing and in costume how self-willed,
                        Little foreigners and folk amiable
                        Through mild unhappiness. Last, boredom’s part,
                        The chat’s hour of “dear body” and “dear heart.”

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