Page:Thalaba the Destroyer 1809 Vol 1 - Southey.djvu/33

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I. 15

“The silkworm of the East
“Spun her sepulchral egg;
“The hunter African
“Provok’d the danger of the elephant’s wrath;
“The Ethiop, keen of scent,
“Detects the ebony,
“That deep-inearth’d, and hating light,
“A leafless tree and barren of all fruit,
“With darkness feeds her boughs of raven grain.
“Such were the treasures lavished in yon pile;
“Ages have past away,
“And never mortal eye
“Gaz’d on their vanity.

“The garden,.. copious springs
“Blest that delightful spot,
“And every flower was planted there
“That makes the gale of evening sweet.
“He spake, and bade the full-grown forest rise
“His own creation; should the King
“Wait for slow Nature’s work?
“All trees that bend with luscious fruit,
“Or wave with feathery boughs,