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-bid 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!