Four in the Afternoon 1951

Poems narrate four afternoon vignettes; each protagonist is older than the one in the previous sketch. As a girl skips rope in "Game Little Gladys," she sings a jingle about who she might marry. In a park, ten men appear atop low pedestals. Is one her future? In "Gardener's Son," a teen wakes outdoors; thinking about love, he goes about his chores, passing by classical statues and slightly-older women. In "Princess Printemps," a spring poem accompanies a somewhat addled princess as an equally silly suitor pursues her. In "The Aging Balletomane," a man rocking on a porch looks about him, remembers his youth, and sees an apparition of a woman. She dances. He reaches for her. She disappears.—

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