Poems (Scudder)/Angel-fish
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ANGEL-FISH
Looking down over the edge of the rocks
The dark green, moveless water
Seemed solid as jade itself,
As the lucent jade of Ceylon.
The dark green, moveless water
Seemed solid as jade itself,
As the lucent jade of Ceylon.
A flicker—a palpitant curve of light,
Elusive, vivid, serene
As the wave of the mer-queen's crystal fan.
Elusive, vivid, serene
As the wave of the mer-queen's crystal fan.
Slow-gliding, luminous shapes,
Spent meteors moving large and dim
Past the thin gold disk of the sun-fish, past
The rosy ocean-stars that lie
Deep down on the cool, dim moss.
Spent meteors moving large and dim
Past the thin gold disk of the sun-fish, past
The rosy ocean-stars that lie
Deep down on the cool, dim moss.
Were an opal cloven through the heart
Would it show such colors as these—
Sheer, limpid green of the peridot,
The blue of the moonstone's heart,
Rose-purple of almandines.
Would it show such colors as these—
Sheer, limpid green of the peridot,
The blue of the moonstone's heart,
Rose-purple of almandines.
They are moonlight patterned through
The jewelled oriels
Of the mer-king's palace beneath
Its low-arched, murmurous domes
The jewelled oriels
Of the mer-king's palace beneath
Its low-arched, murmurous domes
They are bubbles, pulsing, rounded, sleek
The foam-sprite blows on a silvern pipe
That would burst with a mortal's breath.
The foam-sprite blows on a silvern pipe
That would burst with a mortal's breath.
Now they are gone, they have floated down,
And the moveless, dark green water
Seems solid and still as jade.
And the moveless, dark green water
Seems solid and still as jade.