Page:Poems Scudder.djvu/43

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—Know ye the sea-fays' palace hall
Where the low sunlight lies between
Fantastic columns of the green
Rough chrysoprase, and where the small
Barnacles build a mimic tower
Beside a little lake where float
Quaint likenesses of pleasure-boat
And idling swans? Doth the rock-flower
Display your blue and green and white
While shrinking from the icy shower
A wave flings o'er the boulders' height?
I must believe if it be sooth
That pearls the full moon's children are,
The spirit of some vanished star
Lost long ago in the world's youth
Down the dark abyss of the years
Now dwells within your shallow spheres.


AZALEAS
You take the trim lawn's centre,
So confident each one,
And spread with sleek complacency
Your satins in the sun.

Your amethysts and crimsons
To palest coral shade
While fawn and vivid orange
To cream or amber fade.

But though you look so haughty
And never try to speak,
Alack, a tiny freckle
That spots each glossy cheek

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