Children at play in a winter garden

Le Jardin des Tuileries

Poem·about 1 min

"Like little things of dancing gold."
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Poem

This winter air is keen and cold,And keen and cold this winter sun,But round my chair the children runLike little things of dancing gold.

Sometimes about the painted kioskThe mimic soldiers strut and stride,Sometimes the blue-eyed brigands hideIn the bleak tangles of the bosk.

And sometimes, while the old nurse consHer book, they steal across the square,And launch their paper navies whereHuge Triton writhes in greenish bronze.

And now in mimic flight they flee,And now they rush, a boisterous band⁠—And, tiny hand on tiny hand,Climb up the black and leafless tree.

Ah! cruel tree! if I were you,And children climbed me, for their sakeThough it be winter I would breakInto spring blossoms white and blue!

Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0 1.0)

In brief

Summary

The speaker sits in the cold winter sunshine of a Paris garden and watches children at play. They run round his chair 'Like little things of dancing gold', strut as mimic soldiers by the painted kiosk, hide as brigands in the bare shrubbery, and slip away from their reading nurse to sail paper boats beneath a bronze Triton. At last they swarm up a black, leafless tree. The speaker scolds the tree as cruel: if children climbed him, he says, he would break into spring blossom for their sake, winter or not.

Key themes

"Like little things of dancing gold."

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Summary

The first stanza sets the scene. The air and the sun are both 'keen and cold', but children run round the speaker's chair 'Like little things of dancing gold'. The next two stanzas list their games. Sometimes 'The mimic soldiers strut and stride' about the painted kiosk; sometimes 'the blue-eyed brigands hide / In the bleak tangles of the bosk'. And sometimes, while 'the old nurse cons / Her book', they steal across the square and launch 'their paper navies' where 'Huge Triton writhes in greenish bronze'.

In the fourth stanza they play at fleeing and rushing back, 'a boisterous band', and then, 'tiny hand on tiny hand', they climb 'the black and leafless tree'.

The last stanza turns to the speaker himself. 'Ah! cruel tree!' he says, and imagines that if he were the tree and children climbed him, then for their sake, 'Though it be winter', he would break 'Into spring blossoms white and blue!' The poem closes on this light, affectionate reproach.

Characters

  • The speaker

    The watcher in the chair

    He sits in a chair in the winter garden, watching the children run and play while their nurse reads. Silent through most of the poem, he speaks up at the end to reproach the bare tree, saying that if children climbed him he would blossom for their sake.

  • The children

    Soldiers, brigands and sailors

    The children of the garden, who run 'Like little things of dancing gold', march as mimic soldiers, hide as brigands, sail paper boats beneath the bronze Triton and finally climb the leafless tree, 'tiny hand on tiny hand'.

  • The old nurse

    Absorbed in her book

    The children's nurse, who 'cons / Her book' while her charges steal across the square to launch their paper boats. She is barely noticed, but her absorption in her reading gives the children their moment of freedom.

Themes

Childhood against winter

The poem sets warm life against a cold season. The opening lines insist twice that the air and sun are 'keen and cold', and the garden has 'bleak tangles' and a 'black and leafless tree'. Against this the children shine 'Like little things of dancing gold'. The last stanza makes the contrast plain: their presence ought to be enough to make a tree burst into blossom in winter.

Play as make-believe

The children's games copy the adult world in miniature. They are 'mimic soldiers' who 'strut and stride', 'blue-eyed brigands' in hiding, sailors launching 'paper navies', a 'boisterous band' in 'mimic flight'. The word 'mimic', used twice, shows the speaker watching with amusement, seeing both the seriousness of their play and its smallness.

The fanciful onlooker

The speaker is a quiet observer until the last stanza, when he turns on the tree: 'Ah! cruel tree! if I were you'. The mock reproach is playful, a grown man imagining himself as a tree in flower, but it shows how much the children move him. He wishes he could give them the spring that winter denies.

Quotes

Every line is copied from the text and links to where it appears.

Context

The title names the Jardin des Tuileries, the public garden in the centre of Paris. The poem sets its scene there in winter, among a painted kiosk, a square and a fountain with a bronze Triton. It is written in five four-line stanzas rhyming ABBA, and moves from quiet observation of the children to a fanciful address to a tree in the final stanza.

About this edition

  • Text: the complete work from Standard Ebooks, released into the public domain (CC0 1.0). We change only the layout.
  • Download the EPUB of the whole book it comes from, free, for any e-reader.
  • Every quotation and glossary word in these notes is checked against the text.