Poems (Scudder)/Nasturtiums
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NASTURTIUMS
Poised on your sallow tendrils
You witchlike, arrogant blossoms,
You stare from your glass-walled prison,
Alluringly insolent.
You witchlike, arrogant blossoms,
You stare from your glass-walled prison,
Alluringly insolent.
Your smooth green leaves are rounded
Like the leaves of water-lilies—
But yours is no naive, tender
Nymphean loveliness.
Like the leaves of water-lilies—
But yours is no naive, tender
Nymphean loveliness.
Like a blare of fairy trumpets
You shake and shatter the silence
With a delicate fury of color,
With scarlet, yellow, maroon.
You shake and shatter the silence
With a delicate fury of color,
With scarlet, yellow, maroon.
Perhaps you are elfin rockets
All flaring in celebration
Of some cruel triumph, unfurling
Crisp petals of gauzy flame.
All flaring in celebration
Of some cruel triumph, unfurling
Crisp petals of gauzy flame.