November Blue / Alice Meynell

November Blue

The golden tint of the electric lights seems to give a complementary colour to the air in the early evening.
— ESSAY ON LONDON

O heavenly colour, London town
     Has blurred it from her skies;
And, hooded in an earthly brown,
     Unheaven’d the city lies.
No longer, standard-like, this hue
     Above the broad road flies;
Nor does the narrow street the blue
     Wear, slender pennon-wise.

But when the gold and silver lamps
     Colour the London dew,
And, misted by the winter damps,
     The shops shine bright anew —
Blue comes to earth, it walks the street,
     It dyes the wide air through;
A mimic sky about their feet,
     The throng go crowned with blue.

~~
Alice Meynell (1847-1922)
from Poems, 1921

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Darek Zabrocki, London Night Rain, 2007. Courtesy Wallhere.com

Alice Meynell biography