jack of diamonds

“Jack of diamonds, Jack of diamonds
I’ve known you from old
Now you’ve robbed my poor pockets
Of my silver and my gold.”

—Clarence Ashley, from Coo Coo Bird, recorded October 23, 1929.

the white flown feet of sleep

“Night, a black hound, follows the white fawn day,
Swifter than dreams the white flown feet of sleep; . . .”

—Algernon Charles Swinburne, from Atalanta in Calydon, 1865.

the green bud and the red

“Between the green bud and the red
Youth sat and sang by Time, . . .”

—Algernon Charles Swinburne, from Prelude, 1871.

bruises green and black

“‘Though I gat bruises green and black,
I loved him never the less a jot; . . .’”

—Algernon Charles Swinburne, from The Fair Armouress, 1878.

stardawn

“And one bright eve ere summer in autumn sank
At stardawn standing on a grey sea-bank
He felt the wind fitfully shift and heave
As toward a stormier eve; . . .

And in his sleep the dun green light was shed
Heavily round his head
That through the veil of sea falls fathom-deep,
Blurred like a lamp’s that when the night drops dead
Dies; and his eyes gat grace of sleep to see
The deep divine dark dayshine of the sea, . . .”

—Algernon Charles Swinburne, from Thalassius, 1880.

flame i’ the air

“Oh what is the light that shines so red
’Tis long since the sun set;”
Quoth the youngest to the eldest maid:
“’Twas dim but now, and yet
The light is great.”

Quoth the other: “’Tis our sight is dazed
That we see flame i’ the air.”
But the Queen held her brows and gazed,
And said, “It is the glare
Of torches there.”

—Dante Gabriel Rossetti, from The Staff and Scrip, 1851-52.

sunbeams and starbeams

“Sunbeams and starbeams, and all coloured things,
All forms and all similitudes began;
And death, the shadow cast by life’s wide wings,
And God, the shade cast by the soul of man.”

—Algernon Charles Swinburne, from Genesis, 1871.

moonlight from tree to tree

“I sit on a purple bed,
Outside, the wall is red,
Thereby the apple hangs,
And the wasp, caught by the fangs, . . .

Gold wings across the sea!
Moonlight from tree to tree,
Sweet hair laid on my knee,
O, sweet knight, come to me!”

—William Morris, from Golden Wings, 1858.

a gold and blue casket

“‘In a gold and blue casket she keeps all my tears,
But my eyes are no longer blue, as in old years;

‘Yea, they grow grey with time, grow small and dry,
I am so feeble now, would I might die.’”

—William Morris, from The Blue Closet, 1858.

the blue closet

“Alice the Queen, and Louise the Queen,
Two damozels wearing purple and green,
Four lone ladies dwelling here
From day to day and year to year; . . .”

—William Morris, from The Blue Closet, 1858.