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1886–1950

GREY SYMPHONY

John Gould Fletcher

Up on the hillside a long row of larches Shake from their grizzled Beards the vestiges of rain, From grey-blue melting ice-slabs‘ neath their arches The spring goes up again.

Writhing, exuding, Up-steaming, streaming, The earth is breathing to the sky Wet clouds of spring.

Dim rosy fans, the trees As they flick to and fro, Seem driving greyish vapour Over the snow.

The sky remodulates itself From violet-grey to blue, Under the upturned eaves of the blue larches The sun looks through.

Now with the heat of the sun The grey-blue ice-slabs quiver, They slide in muddy trickles Towards the river.

Up on the hillside between the long row of larches Fume up from south pale clouds that bear the rain; In pearl and violet arches They break and shape again.

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GREY SYMPHONY · John Gould Fletcher · Poetry Cove