11 JUNE 1927, Page 15

Poetry

Purple and Gold

LABURNUM and lilac

Are purple and gold ; The bees arc their courtiers, The breezes so bold Their jesters, their minstrels The thrushes that sing, They are decked with the royalty Of Youth and of Spring.

You can lie and gaze up, through The gold and the green, When the sunlight falls trembling And dancing between ; Or bury your nose in A wet lilac spray, That holds all the sweetness And freshness of May.

Through the mist-covered mornings With light breaking through, When their blossoms arc drenched with The sun and the dew, Through the long, scented evenings When shadows grow cold, Laburnum and lilac Reign purple and gold.

BETTY ASKWITII.