Marjorie Marshall, "Three Sketches From Nature" (1927)
By Marjorie Marshall
1.
The Dryad
The dawn with crystals fresh bedecked her hair,
The zephyrs breathed their adoration low,
And earth’s chaste fruits ecstatically dared
To kiss her lips! their ardent love to show.
2.
A Twilight Reverie
Mermaid in your green and crimson gown
Riding joyfully a moon-lit wave,
Sometime slipping shadow-like away
Hiding in a sea where stars are drowned;
Hew your sparkling floods of careless glee
Wake to restless dreams my brooding heart,
Taunt my fettered soul from out the dark—
Nature’s dark, it binds me, sets you free.
3.
At Sunset
A crimson blush envelops all the west
Thru sunset gold frail clouds firs: move then rest,
Now pausing, keeping long a sacred hush,
Now tumbling from a height with downward rush
They quickly drop behind a wind-swayed rim
Of curtains, soft, with palest ash-grey fringed.
Like victor horses racing with fine scorn
The bright hued clouds speed past—are quickly drawn
Within a maze of rose, there in a whirl
Their sumptuous hues like banner flags unfurl.
Like waves they toss, still vying each with each
‘Til bade by ‘the celestial sun, keep peace.
As fast their colors fade they merge as one,
And sink in glory with the setting sun:
Ethereal phantoms of the dark’ning sky
Like pastel oils they smooth from sight, and die.
The west illumines with a suffused glow
The purple shadows deepen, so they go.
Published in The Crisis, September 1927