This brand of soap has the same smell as once in the big
House he visited when he was eight: the walls of the bathroom open
To reveal a lawn where a great yellow ball rolls back through a hoop
To rest at the head of a mallet held in the hands of a child.
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Louis MacNeice looks back at his childhood and plays it into adulthood which no longer plays this game.
Through hoops where no hoops were and each dissolves in turn And the grass has grown head-high and an angry voice cries Play!