Poems (Hinchman)/Playing with color!

by Anne Hinchman

XXXII SONGS OF COLOR

Playing with color!
 How else had I found
All this new boldness?
 Hark to the sound,

The cry of gay orange;
 Come into my hand.
See how I hold it,
 Unflinchingly stand.

Oh, could I touch it,
 That glowing red!
Then I might glory
 When æons are dead.

Yet with thy wonder,
 O thou gentle blue!
Soothe my burnt spirit
 With thy tender hue.

I

GOLD

Victor over cloudy night,
Phœbus in thy amber car,
Bring us now thy goodly light,
Drive away each pale-fac'd star.

Dart thy beams on every side,
Kindle glade and field of grain,
Set aglow great rivers wide,
Gild the clouds, thy princely train.

Now thy worship, given of old,
Is corrupt, and hollow need
Hides thy power in coin of gold;
Cramp'd thy power by crooked greed.

Come with blaze of power and, splendid,
Smite thy harp and, smiting, sing
How thou hast the world befriended,
Thou of light and color king!

Victor over cloudy night,
Phœbus in thy amber car,
Bring us now thy goodly light,
Drive away each pale-fac'd star.

II

WHITE

In the delicate dawn
When the wind, astir,
Through the drift of mist
The sea has kiss'd,
And the fluttering whirr
Out of nests is drawn;

The petals frail
Of the wind-flower,
The anemone,
In their purity
Like a snowy shower
Are toss'd by the gale.

And the gods withdrawn
In the fragrant grove,
With limbs that are bright
In the fading night
As the wings of a dove,
Are whiter than dawn.

III

AZURE

Frail as the dreams that are straying
In the shadowy borders of sleep,
Pale as the mists that are playing
In the dawn on the face of the deep;
Thou spreadest thy veil over heaven
Translucent and azure; at even
Lo! the hills in thy magical keep.

Then, on the shadowy margent
With the sea and the heavens to view,
There, in a glimmer of argent
My soul is awaken'd anew.
Where thy wonderful radiance bendeth
Ecstatic, alone, it ascendeth
Enwrapp'd in thy magical hue.

IV

SAPPHIRE

Fenc'd in with white a garden grows
Fair flowers of every kind one knows;
Bright as the sun across our view
A bird of brilliant sapphire hue
With flash of sudden color goes.
The loveliest garden! How its rows
Of bud on bud it gaily throws,
All rivals to the larkspur's blue,
     Fenc'd in with white.
O air flower-sweet within the close,
Still sweet and sweeter thy breath blows
With breeze as fresh as morning dew.
Lo! where beyond in color, too,
The sea a summer garden shows
     Fenc'd in with white.

V

VIOLET

The voices of night
From the pearly west
Are a circling flight.
Fluttering and bright
The voices of night!
They are dreams in my breast,
The voices of night
From the pearly west.

VI

GREEN

When tearful April's smiles appear
And liquid birds are carolling,
Thy feet touch meadows far and near,
And youth grows fair with marvelling.

Thou frolic and inconstant green!
That, with new humor travelling,
Pauseth awhile on broider'd screen
And languid maid's apparelling;

Soon thou art woven in a shade
Of summer boughs, where, murmuring,
Amid lush fans and shelter laid,
A snake-like stream is wandering.

There to escape the fiery sun
Tumultuous hearts find comforting;
Quiet and shadow there are one
In thy deep verdure slumbering.

 

VII

SCARLET

CRIMSON

 When dazzling passion cometh in his hour,
With naked sword of terror, unafraid,
He strikes the trampler of the wine of life;
And he who treadeth out the grape sinks down.
Across the walled city falls his scream,
His heart is stain'd as all his raiment is.

 O heart split through and burnt as with a flame,
Undaunted, take the fire between thy hands
And fashion from thy torment diadems:
That thou, establish'd, may be cloth'd with strength,
Adorn'd with purple, crown'd with amethyst
And ruby, drink what thou hast gather'd and rejoice.