Classic Poem

( After CHARLES CONDER )

A PARTING golden haze
Reveals a lime-girt place
Of garden-alleys still
That wonders fill —

Fruit-feasting while the slow
Fountain-rain laps below
Cold-dreaming naiades'
Long green-grey knees —

Great hats and low ripe hair;
Sacque-bosoms almost bare;
Silk skirts soft-puffed and wide.
Drooping beside —

Small faces, hesitant, pale —
Gowns — trees — all tremulous, frail;
Faint violet, faint green,
Faint rose scarce-seen.

Where is this gathering's
Dance-consort of slim strings?
In it I long to play
The viola

Tuned to the undertone
Of water plashing down
Deep marble honey-dull
Of ripples full.

Mid bergomask or fain
Impossible pavane
The blue bird of romance
Floats o'er the dance.

A madam elegant,
A dandy figurant
In vain the bird pursue
(As I do too);

Yet it is near, so near,
This land fantastic, dear
(Where none but one can come)
The bird drops home.