“For the gods possess their copies of ‘Diana at the Bath!’”


THE READING BOY

He is carved in alabaster, he is called the Reading Boy,

A cross-legged little pagan, pondering o’er the Siege of Troy;

He’s a miniature Adonis, with a bandeau round his head,

And he’s reading late and early when he ought to be in bed.

He cons an ancient manuscript, he scanneth as a sage,

But with all his mighty reading, never yet hath turned a page;