North and South
O sweet are tropic lands for waking dreams!
There time and life move lazily along;
There by the banks of blue-and-silver streams
Grass-sheltered crickets chirp incessant song,
Gay-coloured lizards loll all through the day,
Their tongues outstretched for careless little flies,
And swarthy children in the fields at play
Look upward laughing at the smiling skies.
A breath of idleness is in the air
That casts a subtle spell upon all things,
And love and mating-time are everywhere
And wonder to life's commonplaces clings.
The fluttering humming-bird darts through the trees
And dips his long beak in the big bell-flowers,
The leisured buzzard floats upon the breeze
Riding a crescent cloud for endless hours;
The sea beats softly on the emerald strands,—
O sweet for dainty dreams are tropic lands!
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