Where rainbows are dissolved.
Beauty shall view herself in pools of amber sheen
Dampened with peacock-tints from the green screen
That mingles liquid light with liquid shadow.
It is not necessary to illustrate the variety of Scott’s pigmentation. That is as remarkable as its luminous beauty. What is most compelling in his Nature-painting is the unique ingenuity, power, and romantic beauty of his color phrases, metaphors, and similes. The naturalistic and imaginative intensity of them is a poetic phenomenon by itself. Consider these phrases: ‘Sun, like a gold sword,’ ‘A blade of gladiolus, like a sword,’ ‘A burning pool of scent and heat,’ ‘Within the windless deeps of memory,’ ‘Bent like a shield between the silver seas,’ ‘With gulfs of blue and summits of rosy snow.’ Consider also these lines:—
The west unrolled a feathery wind.
• • • •
The poignard lightning searched the air.
• • • •
Stars like wood daffodils grow golden in the night.