July

Archery

The Child of the Nineties considers with laughter
The maid whom his Sire in the Sixties ran after,
While careering himself in pursuit of a girl, whom
The Twenties will dub a “last century heirloom”.

Notes on the text

a girl, whom The Twenties will dub a “last century heirloom” A strong echo of “My Rival” in Departmental Ditties, in which a young girl bemoans the fact that all the young men seem to prefer an older woman:

One ray of priceless hope I see
Before my footsteps shine;
Just think, that She’ll be eighty-one
When I am forty-nine.

See also “Cupid’s Arrows” in Plain Tales from the Hills.