 | Firdausi in Exile and Other Poems |  |
183
ILLUSION.
Coy in a covert of the glossy bracken
My love and I sat warm, enchanted, silent,
And watched one tree against the molten azure;
My love and I sat warm, enchanted, silent,
And watched one tree against the molten azure;
Its leaves were fretted gold-work in the sunset,
And on a bough that glistered like vermilion,
A roseate bird of paradise sat preening.
And on a bough that glistered like vermilion,
A roseate bird of paradise sat preening.
Alas! my love arose and went in anger:
The east wind blew, and all the sky grew leaden,
The bloom and gloss from off the bracken faded.
The east wind blew, and all the sky grew leaden,
The bloom and gloss from off the bracken faded.
And, in the hueless larch I still kept watching,
On one brown branch, caught by the storms and broken,
Still sat and preened a common songless fieldfare.
On one brown branch, caught by the storms and broken,
Still sat and preened a common songless fieldfare.
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