BACK-VIEW — To D. F.

By William Ernest Henley

I watched you saunter down the sand:

Serene and large, the golden weather

Flowed radiant round your peacock feather,

And glistered from your jewelled hand.

Your tawny hair, turned strand on strand

And bound with blue ribands together,

Streaked the rough tartan, green like heather,

That round your lissome shoulder spanned.

Your grace was quick my sense to seize:

The quaint looped hat, the twisted tresses,

The close-drawn scarf, and under these

The flowing, flapping draperies -

My thought an outline still caresses,

Enchanting, comic, Japanese!