Robert Fuller Murray (1863-1894)
A December Day
1Blue, blue is the sea to-day,
2 Warmly the light
3Sleeps on St. Andrews Bay --
4 Blue, fringed with white.
5That's no December sky!
6 Surely 'tis June
7Holds now her state on high,
8 Queen of the noon.
9Only the tree-tops bare
10 Crowning the hill,
11Clear-cut in perfect air,
12 Warn us that still
13Winter, the aged chief,
14 Mighty in power,
15Exiles the tender leaf,
16 Exiles the flower.
17Is there a heart to-day,
18 A heart that grieves
19For flowers that fade away,
20 For fallen leaves ?
21Oh, not in leaves or flowers
22 Endures the charm
23That clothes those naked towers
24 With love-light warm.
25O dear St. Andrews Bay,
26 Winter or Spring
27Gives not nor takes away
28 Memories that cling
29All round thy girdling reefs,
30 That walk thy shore,
31Memories of joys and griefs
32 Ours evermore.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: R. F. Murray, The Scarlet Gown: Being
Verses by a St. Andrews Man, 2nd edn., intro. by Andrew Lang (Glasgow:
James MacLehose, 1909): 32-33. LE M9837sc Robarts Library
First publication date:
1891
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2001
Recent editing: 1:2002/10/5
Rhyme: abab
Other poems by Robert Fuller Murray
