Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/374

THE CARIB SEA II

within the covert see

Fern-Land's mimic forestry;

Royal tree-ferns

Canopy the nestling wee ferns

That with every pointed frond

Lend their lords a duteous ear;

Golden ferns a sunshine make—

Fleck their beauty on the brake;

In their moonlight close beyond

Silver ferns like sprites appear.

Here beholden,

Purple, silver, green and golden,

Mingle for their own sweet sake.

III

sure horologe of flowers

Marks in turn the honeyed hours;

Blossoms dangle,

Lithe lianas twist and tangle;

Here on the lagetta tree

Laboring elves at starlight weave

Filmy bride-veils of its spray,

Shot with the cocuya's ray,—

For in fairy-land we be!

Look, and you shall well believe

Oberon reigneth,

And Titania disdaineth,

Still, to yield her lord his way.

IV

, unseen by grosser light,

Fairy-land, at noon of night

Holidaying,

Sallies forth in fine arraying; 344