BRIGHT AFTERNOON by MARGARET DURANT

Suppose with lingering glance we say goodbye
While yet the sloping meadowlands are bright
With full-blown afternoon, and silver light
Is shimmering where river ripples ply;
For glamorous as youth the endless sky
Is set with swan-like drift of lustrous white,
And coverts by the waterside, despite
Their shadows, bode no ill we may descry.

Then can our hearts in warm assurance hold
This landscape loveliness as imagery
Of all that passing years would ever show,
And desolation of a day grown cold
Need never blight, with subtle poignancy,
Remembered beauty that our thoughts bestow.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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