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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ILLUSION by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE

First Line: COY IN A COVERT OF THE GLOSSY BRACKEN
Last Line: STILL SAT AND PREENED A COMMON SONGLESS FIELDFARE.
COY in a covert of the glossy bracken
My love and I sat warm, enchanted, silent,
And watched one tree against the molten azure;

Its leaves were fretted gold-work in the sunset,
And on a bough that glistered like vermilion,
A roseate bird of paradise sat preening.

Alas! my love arose and went in anger:
The east wind blew, and all the sky grew leaden,
The bloom and gloss from off the bracken faded.

And, in the hueless larch that I was watching,
On one brown branch, caught by the storms and broken,
Still sat and preened a common songless fieldfare.



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