Les Ballons

1881

Against these turbid turquoise skiesThe light and luminous balloonsDip and drift like satin moons,Drift like silken butterflies;

Reel with every windy gust,Rise and reel like dancing girls,Float like strange transparent pearls,Fall and float like silver dust.

Now to the low leaves they cling,Each with coy fantastic pose,Each a petal of a roseStraining at a gossamer string.

Then to the tall trees they climb,Like thin globes of amethyst,Wandering opals keeping trystWith the rubies of the lime.

From The Poems of Oscar Wilde (1881), via the English Wikisource transcription.

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.