The Lyons fair! In truth it was a Heaven <br />For idlers' eyes, a feast of curious things, <br />Swings, roundabouts, and shows, the Champions Seven, <br />Dramas of battles and the deaths of kings, <br />The whole Place d'Armes grown white as if with snow, <br />With canvas booths arrayed in triple lines, <br />And jugglers, lions, snakes from Mexico, <br />Dancers on tight ropes, clowns and columbines. <br />I went among them all with grave intent, <br />I, too, to find it may be some delight. <br />I was a boy and knew not what life meant, <br />Nor what the pleasures were men seek in it. <br />Only I knew that mingling with that throng, <br />I was a stranger a strange world among.<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/esther-a-sonnet-sequence-vi/
