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-colored 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 quiet dreams are tropic lands!