Oscar Wilde

Les Ballons

Les Ballons - meaning Summary

Playful Floating Imagery

The poem is a vivid meditation on balloons seen against a bright sky. Wilde uses jewel-like colors and graceful similes to compare their movement to moons, butterflies, pearls and petals. The focus is on delicate motion and shifting poses as the balloons drift among leaves and trees, suggesting playful beauty and fleeting, ornamental life rather than a literal scene. The tone is decorative and quietly whimsical.

Read Complete Analyses

Against these turbid turquoise skies The light and luminous balloons Dip 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 rose Straining at a gossamer string. Then to the tall trees they climb, Like thin globes of amethyst, Wandering opals keeping tryst With the rubies of the lime.

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