Poems (Henley)/Back-View

by William Ernest Henley

BACK-VIEW To D. F.

I watched you saunter down the sand:Serene and large, the golden weatherFlowed radiant round your peacock feather,And glistered from your jewelled hand.Your tawny hair, turned strand on strandAnd 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 theseThe flowing, flapping draperies—My thought an outline still caresses,Enchanting, comic, Japanese!