Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke
William Barnes (18011886)White and Blue
M
And comely in all her ways and gait,
She shows in her face the rose’s hue,
And her lids on her eyes are white on blue.
And folk came in clusters every way,
As soon as the sun dried up the dew,
And clouds in the sky were white on blue,
By daisies and shining banks of chalk,
And brooks with the crowfoot flow’rs to strew
The sky-tinted water, white on blue;
She tapp’d with her foot as she did stand,
She danc’d in a reel, and wore all new
A skirt with a jacket, white and blue.
From slender and stout I chose her out,
And what in the evening could I do
But give her my breast-knot white and blue?