Who could have dreamed So many branches in a tree, Till each appears In rainbow-tinted filigree. On every side. . . . Prismatic strange phenomenon: What bright, long-nap, Loose-woven rugs upon each lawn! How silver-fringed The fences, hedges, trellises! Some shrubs are knights A high-tossed plume embellishes. Late and grotesque, The postman, groping, bent, The brittle boughs Their sudden breaking to prevent. Expectant hush Reposes on this eerie view, Till vagrant breeze Awakes half-muted chimes anew, As currents move The tinkling crystals in the bay, By springtime freed, Surge up, then slowly ebb away. Now, lights at dusk Show each fantastic, laden tree Adorned with gems Of sapphire-bright transparency. This elfin scene. . . . Will oft recur to inner eye, Though dawn may bring Bare branches etched against the sky. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CASTLE OF CHILLON by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON VERSES ON SEEING THE SPEAKER ASLEEP IN HIS CHAIR by WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED THEOCRITUS; A VILLANELLE by OSCAR WILDE THE MOUNTAIN ECHO by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH IN MEMORY: MISS JEWETT by GRACE ALLERTON ANDREWS THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 4. THE PASSIONS by JOHN ARMSTRONG THE APOLOGY OF THE BISHOPS IN ANSWER TO BONNER'S GHOST by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |