THE MOORS AT NANTUCKET
FOR K.C.B.
That evening before we started
From Sconset, the afterglow
Was like fiery-hearted opals
That are brought from Mexico.
From Sconset, the afterglow
Was like fiery-hearted opals
That are brought from Mexico.
For the sea was of darkest cobalt
From your friend's porch looking down,
Though it churned into molten garnet
Where the red rock-mosses drown.
From your friend's porch looking down,
Though it churned into molten garnet
Where the red rock-mosses drown.
And the great hydrangeas growing
On the windy cottage lawn
Were purple and madder-tinted
By the hour we must be gone.
On the windy cottage lawn
Were purple and madder-tinted
By the hour we must be gone.
Then we drove over rolling moorlands
Where fleeted along each slope
The eeriest, softest colors,
Fawn, daffodil, heliotrope.
Where fleeted along each slope
The eeriest, softest colors,
Fawn, daffodil, heliotrope.
And the sky that waited the bashful
Girl-moon and her bridesmaid star
Was a clearer pink than the petals
Of the swamp hibiscus are.
Girl-moon and her bridesmaid star
Was a clearer pink than the petals
Of the swamp hibiscus are.
How broad and sheeny and waveless
The ocean lay in our view,
Faint tints of nacre and beryl
And of pale rose-jacinth too.
The ocean lay in our view,
Faint tints of nacre and beryl
And of pale rose-jacinth too.
And the little town that patterned
So clear on the distant sky
With the windmill sails outspreading
Like the wings of a dragon-fly.
So clear on the distant sky
With the windmill sails outspreading
Like the wings of a dragon-fly.
And we dared not laugh or whisper
Lest a word should be the death
Of the fragile wonder that held us
As frost holds a passing breath.
Lest a word should be the death
Of the fragile wonder that held us
As frost holds a passing breath.
—But do you remember, Kathie,
How suddenly on our right
A great owl soared from the bushes
Ghost-grey in the waning light?
How suddenly on our right
A great owl soared from the bushes
Ghost-grey in the waning light?