Lines 1—3

"Trompe l'Oeil" is set in Genoa, a city in northeast Italy, not far from the border of France. Genoa has a long history dating back before the third century b.c. when it was destroyed by the Carthaginians. It was rebuilt by the Romans and was a military base for the Roman Empire. It is common in Genoa to paint outside building walls to make them look as if they contain actual three dimensional objects, such as shutters, trellises, and flower pots. The French phrase "trompe l'oeil," used as the poem's title, refers to a style of painting that is so realistic that the eye is supposed to confuse painted objects for real ones: "trompe" is the French third person singular for "to deceive," and "oeil" is French for "eye."

Line 2 refers to shutters painted next to windows in such a realistic style that, on first...