XXII
While I translated Baudelaire
Children were playing out in the air.
Turning to watch, I saw the light
That made their clothes and faces bright.
I heard the tune they tried to sing,
As they kept dancing in a ring;
But I could not forget my book,
And thought of men whose faces shook
When babies passed them with a look.
They are as terrible as death,
Those children in the road beneath.
Their witless chatter is more dread
Than voices in a madman's head:
Their dance more awful and inspired,
Because they are not ever tired,
Than silent revel with soft sound
Of pipes, on consecrated ground,
When all the ghosts go round and round.
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