Les Sylphides - Louis MacNeice

Life in a day: he took his girl to the ballet;

Being shortsighted himself could hardly see it –

    The white skirts in the grey

    Glade and the swell of the music

    Lifting the white sails.

Calyx upon calyx, Canterbury bells in the breeze

The flowers on the left mirrored to the flowers on the right

     And the naked arms above

     The powdered faces moving

     Like seaweed in a pool.

Now, he thought, we are floating – ageless, oarless –

 Now there is no separation, from now on

       You will be wearing white

       Satin and a red sash

       Under the waltzing trees.

But the music stopped, the dancers took their curtain,

The river had come to a lock – a shuffle of programmes –

        And we cannot continue down

        Stream unless we are ready

        To enter the lock and drop.

So they were married – to be the more together –

And found that they were never again so much together,

         Divided by the morning tea,

         By the evening paper,

         The children and the tradesmen’s bills.

Waking at times in the night she found assurance

Due to his regular breathing but wondered whether

         It was really worth it and where

         The river had flowed away

         And where were the white flowers.