[Portable Poetry ...poems for your pocket]

HOME

POEMS

CREATE

STUFF

ABOUT

[The book printer - Amman]

Oscar Wilde : Impressions 

			I
		Les Silhouettes
	The sea is flecked with bars of grey,
	The dull dead wind is out of tune,
	And like a withered leaf the moon
Is blown across the stormy bay. 

	Etched clear upon the pallid sand
	Lies the black boat: a sailor boy
	Clambers aboard in careless joy
With laughing face and gleaming hand.

	And overhead the curlews2 cry,
	Where through the dusky upland grass
	The young brown-throated reapers pass,
Like silhouettes against the sky.

			II
		La Fuite de la Lune3
	To outer senses there is peace,
	A dreamy peace on either hand
	Deep silence in the shadowy land,
Deep silence where the shadows cease.

	Save for a cry that echoes shrill
	From some lone bird disconsolate;
	A corncrake4 calling to its mate;
The answer from the misty hill. 

	And suddenly the moon withdraws
	Her sickle from the lightening skies,
	And to her sombre cavern flies,
Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze.



Oscar Wilde (1855-1900)	1881
 
FOOTNOTES
1 the title can be translated as impressions or sketches; 2 brown plumaged wading bird with large, curved beak and distinctive forlorn cry; 3 the flight of the moon; 4 inland bird with sharp repetitive call
 

If you came here from the main Poems page, the BACK button on your web browser will bring you back there

 

Note 1: When we convert poems to HTML (WEB) format for viewing here, some modifications may occur to the formatting (e.g. indenting) - all poems are correctly formatted for print.

Note 2: if you came to this page following a search engine query, you can find the Portable Poetry home page at www.portablepoetry.com.

Note 3: Feel free to copy these poems and footnotes for your personal and private use. For other uses please get in touch with us first. This poem is believed to be in the public domain. All footnotes are copyright Portable Poetry.