Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/32

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From Nubian hills, that hail the dawning day,

To Guinea's coast, where evening fades away,

Regions immense, unsearchable, unknown,

Bask in the splendour of the solar zone ;

A world of wonders, — w here creation seems

No more the work of Nature but her dreams ;

Great, wild, and beautiful, beyond controul.

She reigns in all the freedom of her soul ;

Where none can check her bounty when she showers

O'er the gay wilderness her fruits and flowers ;

None brave her fury, when, with whirlwind breath,

And earthquake step, she walks abroad with death ;

O'er boundless plains she holds her fiery flight,

In terrible magnificence of light ;

At blazing noon pursues the evening breeze,

Through the dun gloom of realm-o'ershadowing trees,

Her thirst at Nile's mysterious fountain quells,

Or bathes in secrecy where Niger swells

An inland ocean, on whose jasper rocks

With shells andsea-flower-wreaths she bindsher locks :

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