The _wrinkled_ sea beneath him _crawls_.
--"The Eagle".
Or here of a ship at sea, in the distance:--
And on through zones of light and shadow _Glimmer away to the lonely deep_.
--"To the Rev. F. D. Maurice".
Or here of waters falling high up on mountains:--
Their thousand _wreaths of dangling water-smoke_.
--"The Princess".
Or of a water-fall seen at a distance:--
And _like a downward smoke_ the slender stream Along the cliff _to fall and pause and fall_ did seem.
Or here again:--
We left the dying ebb that _faintly lipp"d The flat red granite_.
Or here of a wave:--
Like a wave in the wild North Sea _Green glimmering toward the summit_ bears with all _Its stormy crests that smoke_ against the skies Down on a bark.
--"Elaine".
That beech will _gather brown_, This _maple burn itself away_.
--"In Memoriam".
The _wide-wing"d sunset_ of the misty marsh.
--"Last Tournament".
But ill.u.s.trations would be endless. Nothing seems to escape him in Nature. Take the following:--
Like _a purple beech among the greens Looks out of place_.
--"Edwin Morris".
Or
Delays _as the tender ash delays To clothe herself, when all the woods are green_.
--"The Princess".
As _black as ash-buds in the front of March_.
--"The Gardener"s Daughter".
A gusty April morn That _puff"d_ the swaying _branches into smoke_.
--"Holy Grail".
So with flowers, trees, birds and insects:--
The fox-glove _cl.u.s.ters dappled bells_.
--"The Two Voices".
The sunflower:--
_Rays round with flame its disk of seed_.
--"In Memoriam".
The dog-rose:--
_Tufts of rosy-tinted snow_.
--"Two Voices".