"[The sun is lord of life and colour]" by Iris Tree

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May 28, 2022 

[The sun is lord of life and colour]

Iris Tree

The sun is lord of life and colour,
Blood of the rose and hyacinth,
Hair of the sea and forests,
Crown of the cornfields,
Body of the hills.
The moon is the harlot of Death,
Slaughterer of the sun,
Priestess and poisoner she goes
With all her silver flock of wandering souls,
Her chant of wailing waters,
The bed of shimmering dust from which she comes
Bound all around with bandages of mist….
The living are as blossoms and fruit on the tree,
The dead are as lilies and wind on the marshes;
The living are as cherries that bow to the morning
Beckoning to the loitering stranger,
The wind, to sing them his eerie ballads.
The dead are as frozen skeleton branches
Whereon the stillness perches like an owl….
The dead are as snow on the cherry orchard.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on May 28, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“[The sun is lord of life and color]” appeared in Poems (John Lane Company, 1919).

Iris Tree, born on January 27, 1897, in London, was a poet, actress, and painter’s model known for sitting for members of the Bloomsbury Group and for her bohemian lifestyle. She authored three books of poetry, including The Traveler and Other Poems (Boni & Liveright, 1927), and was anthologized in the first four issues of Edith Sitwell’s Wheels. She died on April 13, 1968.
Poems
(John Lane Company, 1919)

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Thanks to Brandy Nālani McDougall, author of The Salt-Wind: Ka Makani Pa‘Akai (Kuleana ‘Oiwi Press, 2008), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Listen to a Q&A about McDougall’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year
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