Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/101

 Butterflies of tropic splendour hover
 * In a maze of rainbow-coloured wings:

Some like stars light up their own green heaven
 * Some are spangled like a golden toy,

Or like flowers from their foliage driven
 * In the fiery ecstasy of joy.

But, the forest slumber rudely breaking.
 * Through the silence rings a piercing yell;

At the cry unnumbered beasts, awaking,
 * With their howls the loud confusion swell.

'Tis the cry of some frail creature panting
 * In the tiger's lacerating grip;

In its flesh carnivorous teeth implanting,
 * While the blood smokes round his wrinkled lip.

'Tis the scream some bird in terror utters,
 * With its wings weighed down by leaden fears,

As from bough to downward bough it flutters
 * Where the snake its glistening crest uprears: