Desolation
Under the plum-blossoms are nightingales ; But the sea is hidden in an egg-white mist, And they are silent.
Amy Lowell
Under the plum-blossoms are nightingales ; But the sea is hidden in an egg-white mist, And they are silent.
Imagine standing under flowering plum trees in spring, where nightingales are normally heard. The speaker names them, yet the birds are not singing. Just off the coast, the sea has vanished into a pale, thick mist the color of egg white. That blankness seems to swallow sound as well as sight.
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