"Mamzelle" by Mary Wilson
The Summer Term had just begun;
My desk was warm beneath the sun;
I leaned across the window ledge
To smell the springing sweet-briar hedge.
The quiet garden seemed to wait;
I heard a footstep by the gate,
Across the grass a shadow fell --
I looked -- and saw Mamzelle.
My mouth is dry as she goes by --
One curving line from foot to thigh --
And, with unEnglish liberty
Her bosom bounces, full and free;
Pale skin, pink lips, and wide blue stare,
Her page-boy fall of silky hair
Swings on her shoulders like a bell;
She cannot get her idioms right,
She weeps for Paris in the night
Or in the tension of the Match,
She laughs when someone drops a catch!
The other staff are not unkind
But distant; she tries not to mind,
And I would gladly go through Hell
Just to protect Mamzelle.
On Conversation Walks we go,
I touch her sleeve -- she doesn't know;
All summer's beauty round her lies
As 'Parlez Français, girls!' she cries.
I do not smile, I do not talk,
In silence by her side I walk
And hope that no one there can tell
How much I love Mamzelle.
The sunny days are hurrying past;
Their painful sweetness will not last;
The poppies burn among the hay,
The heartless cuckoo sings all day;
The Home Farm woods are green and cool,
There's laughter from the swimming pool.
At end-of-term I say farewell,
Perhaps I shall forget her face,
Her gentleness, her body's grace;
Even her accents, deep and slow,
May be forgotten. And I know
That I, throughout the coming years,
May love with joy, may love with tears;
But shall I ever love so well