IV

And there the palms, the talipot with its lofty blossom-spire,

The cocoanut and the slim areca listening await

What sorceries of his trembling rays of equatorial fire

Will next be laid upon some lesser mate.

[Pg 44]

V

The river, too, that he winds as a magic circle round the wealth

He has here engendered, has the glide of a serpent lost in trance;

And scents of clove and cinnamon that sip cool from it, in stealth

Pour it upon the air like necromance.

VI

And down where the rain-tree and the rife breadfruit together lean

Over its flow, and the flying-foxes hanging head to earth

Suddenly drop then flap aloft on large bat-wing, is seen

More of his mazing wizardry in birth.

VII

All day long it is so that his hot hypnotic eye commands

[Pg 45]

With steady ray; and the earth obedient brings enchantment forth.

 Prev. P 39/86 next