MCMXIV

    Standing² as patiently

    As if they were stretched outside

    The Oval or Villa³ Park

    The crowns of hats the sun

    On moustached archaic⁴ faces

    Grinning as if it were all

    An August bank Holiday lark⁵；

    And the shut shops the bleached⁶

    Established names on the sunblinds

    The farthings and sovereigns

    Adn dark-clothed children at play

    Called after kings and queens

    The tin advertisements

    For cocoa and twist and the pubs

    Wide open all day；

    And the countryside ont caring：

    The place-names all hazed⁷ over

    With flowering grasses and fields

    Shadowing Domesday lines

    Under wheat's restless silence；

    The differently-dressed servants

    With tiny rooms in huge houses

    The dust behind limousines⁸；

    Never such innocence⁹

    Never before or since

    As changed itself to past

    Without a word——the men

    Leaving the gardens tidy

    The thousands of marriages

    Lasting¹⁰ a littlewhile longer：

    Never such innocence again.