THE cretonne in your willow¹ chair Shows through a zone of rosy² air, A tree of parrots, agate-eyed, With blue-green crests³ and plumes⁴ of pride And beaks⁵ most formidably curved. I hear the river, silver-nerved, To their shrill⁶ protests make reply, And the palm forest stir and sigh.

    Curious, the spell that colors cast, Binding⁷ the fancy coweb-fast, And you would smile if you could know I like your cretonne parrots so！ But I have seen them sail toward night Superbly homeward, the last light Lifting them like a purple sea Scorned and made use of arrogantly⁸； And I have heard them cry aloud >From out a tall palm's emerald cloud； And I brought home a brilliant feather, Lost like a flake⁹ of sunset weather.

    Here in the north the sea is white And mother-of-pearl in morning light, Quite lovely, but there is a glare That daunts¹⁰ me. Now the willow chair Suggests a more perplexing sea, Till my heart aches with memory And parrots dye the air around, And I forget the pallid¹¹ Sound.