28 FEBRUARY 1987, Page 34

La Belle Epoque

Queuing up outside the Musee d'Orsay You see a file of Continents in bronze Across from the Elephant and Monkey Already sporting sprayed-on purple loins.

Australia there, with crouching kangaroo, Americas with claws about the neck: What, you ask, were sculptors then to do? - But mould Miss World, complete with tomahawk.

All Asia looks to me Eurasian And Africa (mulato?) has good tits.

Ah dreamland, Edwardian and brazen: She clasps a bunch of bursting pomegranates.

Seated as if on coin or stamp, full dress, Europe alone, I note, reveals no breast: Armoured — against herself, it proved, alas And looking, even then, well past her best.

Mark Haworth-Booth