Landscape

In the evening air the waves are
All soft lilacs and sombre, singing
In a darkness rippling away;
Each green grace of frond
Carrying cool notes of hope.

In a wind of trust
The lie of beauty entreats me
With its grace, its trembling,
As the shadows are drawn out
And laid, a sweet store to be gathered.

So sea-saturn leaves
Hush the throb of
The fountain weaving among the precincts
Of what I believe in the promise of each day —
The sea of green cloths;
Whose waves illuminate space;
And call me back from sorrow
With their patterns in silver.

So sweetly they are connected,
The beauties call to me still —
What which is today remains as
A landscape forever unfurled.

• Louis MacNeice