The speaker remembers a small, vivid moment from home: three Dominican nuns walk past on the street. What catches the speaker’s attention isn’t anything grand—just the tapping of their feet, the way their shawls blow into shapes like threes, twos, and the letter L, and the soft ringing of their rosaries as the wind moves them. The comparisons are playful and precise, almost like a child noticing how fabric and sound make patterns. There is no drama or heavy religious meaning here. Instead, the poem creates a feeling of quiet wonder. The nuns pass through an ordinary day, but the speaker sees them as something delicate and musical. The mood is calm, curious, and lightly enchanted, as if a routine street has briefly turned into a place worth watching and remembering.
Three Dominican Nuns — Summary
One day they came; I heard their feet. They made a tapping on the street.
And as they passed before our trees, Their shawls blew out in curves like threes, And bent again in twos and L's;
The wind blew on their rosaries And made them ring like little bells.