Eleanor Farjeon

Colour-Tones

I

A visionary filmy sheen
Scarce palpable of silver-green
Limns barren furrow and bare branch.
One month more, and the welcoming
Gates o' the world will open wide
To let the full deep vernal tide
Sweep overland, an avalanche
Of green, absorbing in its rush
This silver-misty verdure ... Hush!
This is the old earth's dream of Spring.

II

In Cobham woods the bluebells run
Celestial rillets, streams and rivers,
Or else a purple lake they lie,
Or little azure pool;
The blue flood shimmers in the sun
Or under the wind's breathing shivers,
While drops cerulean-tincted spill
Among the grass. Then very still
The dim sweet waters grow and cool
Like shadows of the sky.

III

The yellow light of daffodils
The lawns beneath the fruit-trees fills,
The yellow light of early spring
Swims in the shining upper air,
And all about the fragrant fair
Blossoming boughs of sunlit white
Like clouds of heavenly incense swing
'Twixt yellow light and yellow light.