CRETONNE TROPICSThe cretonne in your willow chairShows through a zone of rosy air,A tree of parrots, agate-eyed,With blue-green crests and plumes of prideAnd beaks most formidably curved.I hear the river, silver-nerved,To their shrill protests make reply,And the palm forest stir and sigh.Curious, the spell that colors cast,Binding the fancy coweb-fast,And you would smile if you could knowI like your cretonne parrots so!But I have seen them sail toward nightSuperbly homeward, the last lightLifting them like a purple seaScorned and made use of arrogantly;And I have heard them cry aloudFrom out a tall palm’s emerald cloud;And I brought home a brilliant feather,Lost like a flake of sunset weather.Here in the north the sea is whiteAnd mother-of-pearl in morning light,Quite lovely, but there is a glareThat daunts me.Now the willow chairSuggests a more perplexing sea,Till my heart aches with memoryAnd parrots dye the air around,And I forget the pallid Sound.GRACE HAZARD
The cretonne in your willow chairShows through a zone of rosy air,A tree of parrots, agate-eyed,With blue-green crests and plumes of prideAnd beaks most formidably curved.I hear the river, silver-nerved,To their shrill protests make reply,And the palm forest stir and sigh.Curious, the spell that colors cast,Binding the fancy coweb-fast,And you would smile if you could knowI like your cretonne parrots so!But I have seen them sail toward nightSuperbly homeward, the last lightLifting them like a purple seaScorned and made use of arrogantly;And I have heard them cry aloudFrom out a tall palm’s emerald cloud;And I brought home a brilliant feather,Lost like a flake of sunset weather.Here in the north the sea is whiteAnd mother-of-pearl in morning light,Quite lovely, but there is a glareThat daunts me.Now the willow chairSuggests a more perplexing sea,Till my heart aches with memoryAnd parrots dye the air around,And I forget the pallid Sound.
GRACE HAZARD