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Lady Beatrice's Leisure
Laugh if you will, but all too easily
and all too often, I grow weary of
lessons in Latin. Its ubiquity
is our great heritage and history---
but paradigms of parsing have bored me
to tears. Some teach it out of mere conceit,
subjecting students to a worse abuse.
But when I can escape the shuttered gloom,
I hurry, up stairs, to my sunlit room
and pleasant leisure on the balcony.
Once there, I eagerly kick off my shoes
(for verse is better with my stockinged feet
unshod), and read my boy friend's poetry---
words in vernacular that sing his love,
someday to sing to all of Italy.
Starward
[jlc]
