The objects in this case
were taken from a grave:
a pair of ear-rings, gold, simple design;
a bronze mirror, its shine a roughened green
but on the back still, delicately lined,
a leaf-fan on whorled stalks, above the tang
which held it in the handle, doubtless of wood
(no trace of that remained);
two jointed dolls of clay;
likewise of fired clay, half a dozen crocks,
five of them black, prettily formed but plain,
the sixth (small like the others) a masterpiece
of shaping and drawing.
These were lifted from a girl’s grave,
put there by friends, by her parents probably,
to be there always in the dark ground
with the dead child.
Popular name for archaeologist
is grave-robber.
Not without reason.
Still, might perhaps the master potter-painter
like to have known his handiwork seen,
shown, loved again?