The Study in Aesthetics
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he very small children in patched clothing,Being smitten with an unusual wisdom,Stopped in their play as she passed themAnd cried up from their cobbles:_Guarda! Ahi, guarda! ch’ è be’a!_[A] But three years after thisI heard the young Dante, whose last name I do not know--For there are, in Sirmione, twenty-eight youngDantes and thirty-four Catulli; And there had been a great catch of sardines,And his eldersWere packing them in the great wooden boxesFor the market in Brescia, and heLeapt about, snatching at the bright fishAnd getting in both of their ways;And in vain they commanded him to _sta fermo!_And when they would not let him arrangeThe fish in the boxesHe stroked those which were already arranged,Murmuring for his own satisfactionThis identical phrase:_Ch’ è be’a._
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