and
"But joy as an Arctic sun went down"
the kind of lines rarest in his verse; more characteristic are,
"Hearts like cloisters dim and grey,"
"the great star swings
Along the sapphire zone,"
"The Angel childhood of the earth,"
"Glint the bubble planets tossing in the dead black sea of night,"
"The old enchantment lingers in the honey heart of earth."
There are comparatively few "purple patches" in Mr. Russell's poetry, for the reasons that each poem depends for its chief appeal on one mood or thought or dream immanent in it, rather than on any fine phrasing. The effort to catch the meaning of the verse—seldom apparent at first glance—prevents the noting of as many purple lines as there are. Nor when noted are such lines readily memorable, since they are apt to lack association with known and loved things to bring them home to the reader. And again the poems are very short,—intimations, suggestions rather than expressions,—and their intangible themes are often much alike, and poem becomes confused with poem in the memory.