Page:New poems and variant readings, Stevenson, 1918.djvu/133

Rh From these, that on the ground repose,

Their lady lately re-arose;

And laying by the lady's name,

A living woman re-became.

Of her, that from the public eye

They do enclose and fortify,

Now, lying scattered as they fell,

An indiscreeter tale they tell:

Of that more soft and secret her

Whose daylong fortresses they were,

By fading warmth, by lingering print,

These now discarded scabbards hint.

A twofold change the ladies know:

First, in the morn the bugles blow,

And they, with floral hues and scents,

Man their beribboned battlements.

But let the stars appear, and they

Shed inhumanities away;

And from the changeling fashion see,

Through comic and through sweet degree,

In nature's toilet unsurpassed,

Forth leaps the laughing girl at last.