University of Virginia Library

II.

Bearing to lavish leaves your cadence low,
From far off indolent lands of bloomful ease,
Of gaudy birds and iridescent seas,
O South-wind, fragrant South-wind, whither do you blow?
“Northward to find my cruel white-limbed love,
Who dwells where all strange polar glories blaze;
Where, through the scintillant-starred long-lasting nights,
Auroral splendors up the dark heaven move,
And where one sees, through scant-lit freezing days,
Colossal ice-plinths, full of emerald lights,
House the huge walrus in their crystal maze!
And I, the spirit whom all soft dreams fill,
I, the bland South-wind, that can work no ill,
When her cold kisses through these warm lips thrill,
My life grows her life, and my will her will!”