Here's flowery taffeta for Mary's new gown: <br />Here's black velvet, all the rage, for Dick's birthday coat. <br />Pearly buttons for you, Mary, all the way down, <br />Lace ruffles, Dick, for you; you'll be a man of note. <br /> <br />Mary, here I've bought you a green gingham shade <br />And a silk purse brocaded with roses gold and blue, <br />You'll learn to hold them proudly like colours on parade. <br />No banker's wife in all the town half so grand as you. <br /> <br />I've bought for young Diccon a long walking-stick, <br />Yellow gloves, well tanned, at Woodstock village made. <br />I'll teach you to flourish 'em and show your name is DICK, <br />Strutting by your sister's side with the same parade. <br /> <br />On Sunday to church you go, each with a book of prayer: <br />Then up the street and down the aisles, everywhere you'll see <br />Of all the honours paid around, how small is Virtue's share. <br />How large the share of Vulgar Pride in peacock finery.<br /><br />Robert Graves<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-well-dressed-children/
