rown drunken: "Mine
These fruits unknown, in thorny combs that shine,
Or gray-green spikes that glow, dull on the sands.
Fain would I pluck, out-reaching eager hands,
Save that a marvel grows of ruddier rind
Out-flinging fruity breath upon the wind,
Beneath harsh spines half-hid. Nor drains
My wilful spouse such nectars fine. Nor gains
His patient care the fruitage rare, these plains
That heaps unheeded. Nay, nor bearded grains
Golding this goodly land, where Lilith reigns."

So passed the glad years on, and o'er her home--
Its woods and mountains, its clear streams--to roam,
She loved. The inmost throb of Nature's heart
She felt amid the grass. Each daintiest part
Of Nature's work she knew; each gain, each loss.
And reverent watched on high the starry cross
Gleaming, mute symbol in that southern dome
Of One--the Promised One--of days to come.

The rifted sea-shell on the shingly beach
She scanned, pitying each inmate gone. Each
Named. 'Mong beetling crags, the sea-bird's home,
Light-footed, went. Or, idly, in the foam
Under the cocoa-palms, her fingers dipped,
Much marveling to see where featly slipped
Beneath the waves scaled creatures, crimson-dyed
Or luminous: Barred-yellow, purple pied,
Rose-tinted, opaline, or dight with stain,
Rich as the rainbow streaks, when through the rain
The Sun's kiss falls. Much wondered she when bright
By sedgy pools, flamingoes stalked. And light
The startled ostrich bent his headlong flight
O'er desert bare. And on the woody height
Trooped zebras, velvet-brown. The date's green crest
Beneath, the peaceful camels lay at rest.
And slender-straight camelopards the boughs
Down-drew, the lush-green leaves thereon to browse.
Or oft 'mong oozy bogs, or through the fens,
Fearless she went, when low, 'mong reedy dens
The water-courses by, huge creatures slept,
Or in the jungles spotted panthers crept,
And in the thickets deadly serpents wound
Like blossomed wreaths, their coils upon the ground.
All forms of life she saw; with tenderest care
Uplifting humblest sprays, or blooms most rare.
Pierced the deep heart of Nature's subtlest lore,
Touched highest knowledge, probed the inmost core
Of hidden things. She tracked each circling world
And the wide sweep of billows lightly curled.
Eac