I read, before I fell into a doze,
Some book about old fashions—curious tales
Of bye-gone fancies—kirtles and trunk hose—
Of hoops, and fardingales—
Of mediæval milliners, whose taste
Preluded our vile fashions of to day—
Of how they moulded the ancestral waist
With steel-bound taffeta—
Of powdered heroes of the later days—
Of Hamlets strutting in their full court suits,