 | Areytos or songs and ballads of the South |  |
232
SONNET.—CONCEALED CHARACTER.
Ruffle him not by wrong, and he will keepAs tranquil as the sunbeam in a brook,
Where the winds seldom whisper, and scarce look—
A season still of calm, akin to sleep!
Yet hath he in him fiery qualities,
That need but provocation for the blaze,
And, of a sudden, will his spirit rise,
The wanton or the heedless to amaze.
Sport loves he, and he will not heed your jeer,
If still he deems no malice taints your mirth;
But, with his first suspicion, leaps to birth
The unwonted anger, unallied to fear—
As sudden, under wrong, reveals his ire,
As smit by hostile steel the flint gives fire.
| Areytos or songs and ballads of the South | |