THE cretonne in your willow chair Shows through a zone of rosy air, A tree of parrots, agate-eyed, With blue-green crests and plumes of pride And 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 know I like your cretonne parrots so!
But I have seen them sail toward night Superbly homeward, the last light Lifting them like a purple sea Scorned and made use of arrogantly;And I have heard them cry aloud >From 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 white And mother-of-pearl in morning light, Quite lovely, but there is a glare That daunts me.
Now the willow chair Suggests a more perplexing sea, Till my heart aches with memory And parrots dye the air around, And I forget the pallid Sound.
