Greasing the Plow
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
—Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Windhover”
Sillion is usually called the slice or furrow-slice, sometimes the
mould. . . . When freshly cut a plastic soil with a high clay con-
tent does take on a sheen and, from a distance, the whole field
may gleam for a while in low sunshine.
—Farm Direct UK
