Page:Stevenson - Songs of Travel (1896).djvu/59

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TO AN ISLAND PRINCESS

Snatched out of blindness, rubbed my eyes,
And hailed my promised land with cries.


Yes, Lady, here I was at last;
Here found I all I had forecast:
The long roll of the sapphire sea
That keeps the land's virginity;
The stalwart giants of the wood
Laden with toys and flowers and food;
The precious forest pouring out
To compass the whole town about;
The town itself with streets of lawn,
Loved of the moon, blessed by the dawn,
Where the brown children all the day
Keep up a ceaseless noise of play,
Play in the sun, play in the rain,
Nor ever quarrel or complain;—
And late at night, in the woods of fruit.
Hark! do you hear the passing flute?


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