“The summer day was hot and still.

The cherry-trees that bordered the Lane

Could feel their cherries ripening—

The green slowly turning to yellow

And the yellow blushing red.

The houses dozed in the dusty gardens

With their shutters over their eyes.

‘Do not disturb us!’ they seemed to say.

‘We rest in the afternoon.’

And the starlings hid themselves in the chimneys

With their heads under their wings.

Over the Park lay a cloud of sunlight

As thick and as golden as syrup.

No wind stirred the heavy leaves.

The flowers stood up, very still and shiny,

As though they were made of metal.”

~

from, Mary Poppins,

P. L. Travers, 1952, reformatted from prose