poem index


Edith Sitwell

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Edith Sitwell was born on September 7, 1887 in Yorkshire, England. An eccentric and controversial figure of her time, she wrote plays, fiction, and nonfiction as well as poetry. Her collections of verse include The Wooden Pegasus (B. Blackwell, 1920), Five Variations on a Theme (Duckworth, 1933), and Green Song and Other Poems (Macmillan & Co., 1944). Sitwell died in London December 9, 1964.

by this poet

Amid this hot green glowing gloom	 
A word falls with a raindrop's boom...	 
Like baskets of ripe fruit in air	 
The bird-songs seem, suspended where	 
Those goldfinches—the ripe warm lights	         
Peck slyly at them—take quick flights.	 
My feet are feathered like a bird	 
Among the shadows scarcely

Green apples dancing in a wash of sun—
Ripples of sense and fun—
A net of light that wavers as it weaves
The sunlight on the chattering leaves;
The half-dazed sound of feet,
And carriages that ripple in the heat.
The parasols like shadows of the sun
Cast wavering shades that run