the rainbow sign

“God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, the fire next time.”

—Home In That Rock, traditional Negro spiritual.

The Yellow Book

“He rose, and he put down The Yellow Book.
He staggered and, terrible-eyed,
He brushed past the palms on the staircase
And was helped to a hansom outside.”

—Sir John Betjeman, Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel, from Continual Dew, 1937.

pearly white

“Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear,
And he shows them pearly white.”

—Bertolt Brecht, Prologue, Threepenny Opera, 1928.

The Norwegian Blue

“CUSTOMER: I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.

SHOPKEEPER: Oh yes, the Norwegian Blue—what’s wrong with it?

CUSTOMER: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it—it’s dead that’s what’s wrong with it.”

—Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones & Michael Palin, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, 1969.

the blue of the night

“Where the blue of the night
Meets the gold of the day,
Someone waits for me.”

—Bing Crosby, Roy Turk & Fred Ahlert, Where the Blue of the Night, 1931.

A rainbow and a cuckoo’s song

“A rainbow and a cuckoo’s song
May never come together again;
May never come
This side the tomb.”

—W.H. Davies, A Great Time, Bird of Paradise, 1914.

It was the Rainbow gave thee birth

“It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues.”

—W.H. Davies, Kingfisher, Farewell to Poesy, 1910.

You see

“You see, but you do not observe.”

—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scandal in Bohemia, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892.

Blue Gardens

“In his blue gardens, men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925.

the serpent-haunted sea

“The dragon-green, the luminous, the dark, the serpent-haunted sea.”

—James Elroy Flecker, Gates of Damascus, Golden Journey to Samarkand, 1913.