Poem by Duncan Campbell Scott

The Fifteenth of April

         TO A.L.

    Pallid saffron glows the broken stubble,
      Brimmed with silver lie the ruts,
        Purple the ploughed hill;
    Down a sluice with break and bubble
        Hollow falls the rill;
    Falls and spreads and searches,
      Where, beyond the wood,
    Starts a group of silver birches,
      Bursting into bud.

    Under Venus sings the vesper sparrow,
      Down a path of rosy gold
        Floats the slender moon;
    Ringing from the rounded barrow
        Rolls the robin’s tune;
    Lighter than the robin; hark!
      Quivering silver-strong
    From the field a hidden shore-lark
      Shakes his sparkling song.

    Now the dewy sounds begin to dwindle,
      Dimmer grow the burnished rills,
        Breezes creep and halt,
    Soon the guardian night shall kindle
        In the violet vault,
    All the twinkling tapers
      Touched with steady gold,
    Burning through the lawny vapours
      Where they float and fold.

1. Meditation at Perugia
2. The Sea by the Wood
3. An Impromptu
4. Above St. Irénée
5. Dream Voyageurs

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