carat.
1 : variant of KARAT.
2 : a unit of weight for precious stones equal to 200 milligrams.
—MerriamWebster Online Dictionary.
carrot.
1 : a biennial herb . . . with a usually orange spindle-shaped edible root; also : its root.
—MerriamWebster Online Dictionary.
great diamonds
“Some folks say that once in a while youll find a coral snake in there, he glistening magic in his yellow and vermillion stripes, lying there near your foot like a thing bewitched, the fatal spell of his fangs in his wonderful color: cute thing, pretty little yellow and vermillion snake. Those rattlers in the swamps are of wonderful coloration: white, black, yellow, orange, red, blue, in great diamonds. Not like desert rattlers, dry, dusty in color, but moist in color, refulgent in color.”
—Julian Lee Rayford, from Cottonmouth, 1941.
that tawny river
“Mobile lies beside that tawny river. Swamps lie along that golden-red muddy-green-yellow river. Swamps as individual, each one, as the people on their outskirts.”
—Julian Lee Rayford, the opening lines of Cottonmouth, 1941.
red, white, and blue
“At first I painted a horses [bone] head and then I got this cows head, and I had this cows head painted against the blue . . . and I thought, well I have to do something else about that. And that was at the time that the men were all talking about the great American novel, the great American play, the great American, oh, it was the great American everything. . . .
So I thought Ill make my picture a red, white, and blue (laughs), Ill make it an American painting. . . . I put a red stripe down each side. It entertained me, but I dont think anybody else caught on to it for quite a while.”
—Georgia O’Keeffe, from the documentary Georgia O’Keeffe, (60 min), 1977.
lavenders green
“Lavenders blue, dilly dilly,
Lavenders green,
When you are King, dilly dilly,
I shall be Queen.”
—Traditional English, Lavenders Blue, from Lullabies and Poems for Children, selected and edited by Diana Secker Larson, 2002.
lively green
“When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;
When the air does laugh with our merry wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;
When the meadows laugh with lively green,
And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene; . . .
Come live, and be merry, and join with me
To sing the sweet chorus of Ha, ha, he!”
—William Blake (17571827), Laughing Song, from Lullabies and Poems for Children, selected and edited by Diana Secker Larson, 2002.
pink was the shell within
“Pink was the shell within,
Silver without;
Sounds of the great sea
Wandered about.”
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92), Minnie and Winnie, from Lullabies and Poems for Children, selected and edited by Diana Secker Larson, 2002.
the amethyst deep
“Yes, thou shalt know what mystery lies
In the amethyst deep of the curtained skies,
If thou wilt fold thy onyx eyes. . . .”
—Eugene Field (1850–95), Armenian Lullaby, from Lullabies and Poems for Children, selected and edited by Diana Secker Larson, 2002.
misty day, pearly gray
“Child of the moon, rub your rainy eyes. . . .
Oh, child of the moon, bid the sun arise.
Oh, child of the moon,
Give me a misty day, pearly gray, silver, silky faced, wide-awake,
crescent-shaped smile.”
—from Child Of The Moon by the Rolling Stones (Jagger/Richards), 1968.