Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/384

THE CARIB SEA The Plaza folk that lazily

To mass and cockpit go,—

Then pound afresh, with clamor fell,

Each ancient, broken, thrice-blest bell,

Till thrice our mouths have cursed as well

The Bells of Panama.

The Cordillera guards the main

As when Pedrarias bore

The cross, the castled flag of Spain,

To the Pacific shore;

The tide still ebbs a league from quay,

The buzzards scour the emptied Bay:

Come out! Come out!"—still strive to say

The Bells of Panama.

MARTINIQUE IDYL

, the winds long to lure you to their home,

To tempt you on beneath the northern arch!

There, in the swift, bright summer, you and I

May loiter where the elms' deep shadows lie;

There, by our household fire, bid Yule-tide come,

And winter's cold, and every gust of March.

Stay, O stay with me here, and chasten

Your heart still longing to wander more!

Ever the restless winds are winging,

But the white-plumed egrets, skyward-springing,

Over our blue sea hover, and hasten

To light anew on their own dear shore.

The lips grow tired of honey, the cloyed ear

Of music, and of light the eyelids tire. 354