This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison Time Quotes Page 2

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Quote #4

Pale beneath the blaze
Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd
Some broad and sunny leaf, and loved to see
The shadow of the leaf and stem above
Dappling its sunshine! And that walnut-tree
Was richly ting'd, and a deep radiance lay
Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps
Those fronting elms, and now with blackest mass
Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue
Through the late twilight: and though now the bat
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters,
Yet still the solitary humble-bee
Sings in the bean-flower! (49-60)

This passage of the poem plays out the change of time that has been playing out throughout the poem as a whole. Using the imagery of light on leaves, the passage moves from full sunlight to "late twilight." You can also notice another pattern here: the emphasis on the "last" things of the day. Here we see the "last" bee in the flowers.

Quote #5

when the last rook
Beat its straight path along the dusky air
Homewards, I blessed it! deeming its black wing
(Now a dim speck, now vanishing in light) (70-73)

And now here's the "last" bird or rook. As we have seen above, the birds have mostly been replaced by bats. The rook turns into a black speck as it flies into the last bit of light left from the sunset. For a similar image of birds flying at sunset, check out "Sunday Morning" by the American poet Wallace Stevens, also on Shmoop.

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