Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/176

THE CARIB SEA Still from their olden guard undriven

Though at their feet the cliff itself was riven.

And from the rift a stream outflowed,

The fountain of that cloven grot,—

La Source! Along the downward road

It speeded, pitying the lot

Of dwellers in each hot-roofed spot

Which fiery noonday held in rule,—

Yet at the start neglected not

To broaden into one deep pool

Beneath those trees its staunchless waters cool.

Near the green edge of this recess

We made our halt, and marvelled, more

Than at its sudden loveliness,

To find reborn that life of yore

When ocean to Nausicaa bore

The wanderer from Calypso strayed,—

For here swart dames, and beldames hoar,

With many a round-limbed supple maid,

Plashed in the pool and eyed us unafraid.

The simple, shameless washers there,

Dusk children of the Haitian sun, 156