Balloons drifting against a turquoise sky
Les Ballons
"Dip and drift like satin moons"
Poem
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.
In brief
SummaryBalloons float 'Against these turbid turquoise skies', and the poem is a chain of comparisons for them. They drift like satin moons and silken butterflies, reel in the wind like dancing girls, float like transparent pearls and fall like silver dust. Some cling to the low leaves, each 'a petal of a rose / Straining at a gossamer string'; others climb into the tall trees like 'thin globes of amethyst', wandering opals meeting 'the rubies of the lime'. Nothing happens beyond this movement: the poem is a study in colour, light and motion.
Key themes
"Dip and drift like satin moons"
Related works
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The first stanza places the balloons 'Against these turbid turquoise skies', light and luminous, as they 'Dip and drift like satin moons' and 'Drift like silken butterflies'. The second follows their motion in the wind. They 'Reel with every windy gust', 'Rise and reel like dancing girls', 'Float like strange transparent pearls' and 'Fall and float like silver dust'. The verbs repeat and swap places, so the lines themselves seem to bob and sway.
The last two stanzas show the balloons settling and rising. Some cling to the low leaves, 'Each with coy fantastic pose', each like 'a petal of a rose / Straining at a gossamer string'. Others climb to the tall trees 'Like thin globes of amethyst', 'Wandering opals keeping tryst / With the rubies of the lime'. The poem ends high in the branches, among jewel colours, with no comment on what it has shown.
Themes
Likeness upon likeness
The poem says almost nothing plainly about the balloons; it piles up similes. In sixteen lines they become moons, butterflies, dancing girls, pearls, silver dust, rose petals, globes of amethyst and opals. No single image holds for long, which suits objects that 'Dip and drift' and 'Reel with every windy gust'. The shifting comparisons imitate their movement.
Jewels and fabrics
The imagery comes from luxury goods. The balloons are 'satin' and 'silken', 'pearls' and 'silver dust', 'amethyst' and 'opals', and the lime holds 'rubies'. Grouped among the 'Fantaisies Décoratives', the poem treats a sky full of balloons as a piece of decorative design, all surface, colour and shimmer, with the 'coy fantastic pose' of ornament.
Quotes
"Dip and drift like satin moons"
The poem
"Straining at a gossamer string."
The poem
"Wandering opals keeping tryst"
The poem
Context
Les Ballons, French for 'The Balloons', appears in Wilde's collected poems under the heading 'Fantaisies Décoratives', together with Le Panneau. Its four quatrains rhyme ABBA in short lines with a quick, falling rhythm that suits the bobbing movement it describes. Like its companion, it is a study in colour and ornament, not a poem of feeling or argument.
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