SHARP, William

A Crystal forest

The air is blue and keen and cold,

With snow the roads and fields are white

But here the forest's clothed with light

And in a shining sheath enrolled.

Each branch, each twig, each blade of grass,

Seems clad miraculously with glass:

Above the ice-bound streamlet bends

Each frozen fern with crystal ends


The Rookery at Sunrise

The lofty ehn-trees darkly dream

Against the steel-blue sky; till far

I' the twilit east a golden star

O'erbrims the dusk in one vast stream

Of yellow light, and lo! a cry

Breaks from the windy nest---the sky:

Is filled with wheeling rooks---they sway

In one black phalanx towards the day.

A Venetian Sunst: before a Change

(Returning from Torcello)

In violet hues each dome and spire

Stands outlined against flawless rose;

O'er this a carmine ocean flows

Streak'd with pure gold and amber fire,

And through the sea of sundown mist

Float isles of melted amethyst:

Storm-portents, saffron streamers rise,

Fan-like, from Venice to the skies.