Charles Tennyson Turner

The Half-Rainbow

The groups of Autumn flowers were all ablaze;
The hollyhock and scarlet crane's-bill burned
Like merry household fires; but when he turned
To search the distance, all was blocked with haze;
Then came a brightness over rick and roof;
He gladdened, as the running sunshine laughed
Its way from sheaf to sheaf, while, high aloof,
The rainbow lingered in one glorious shaft;
Then, in that light of promise, he appealed,
To her who was his heart's best hope; she heard
The tender suit his trembling lips preferred,
And in imperfect words her love revealed;
Her faltering accents gave a pledge divine,
Like Heaven's half-bow, a true though broken sign.