Page:Verse and Reverse (1921).pdf/19

The eyes of cats, huge cats, in the deepest lair
Of the deepest jungle; the eyes of unblinking birds;
The red-brown fox; all roan and russet herds;
An autumn wood flooded with golden glare;
All pebbled brooks; all flasks of amber wine;
Wings of a butterfly, the "Queen of Spain";
The cloth of gold of some great princess' train;
The burnished copper of some secret shrine;
All these lie pictured in a limpid pool
Of glowing bronze, a Rajah's rich bequest,
The gems themselves, lying flat and smooth and cool
In rows upon the honey-colored breast
Of one whose charms the world may never know,
Whose home is in the dim seraglio.

Shadows of distant pines outlined aloft
Against the blue of some bright summer sky;
Veins in a delicate eyelid, or the eye
Itself, an Irish eye, of violet soft;
Tips of proud thistles, purple after raining;
Throat of the pigeon, the harebell's timid spire;
Edges of sunset cloud when skies are waning
To a pale brightness from a field of fire,
All these caught up, commingled, reappear
In one deep lake of Amethyst unpriced.
Jewel auspicious, worn in winter sere,
For thy dear sake are gladly sacrificed
The richer emblems of a season tender,
The gayer gems that wait on Summer's splendour.