 | Romance and revery |  |
133
THE WASP'S NEST.
Dark-niched amid the vine-clad wall,
Bulges its rough drab-colored ball,
And in and out forever flit
Black wiry shapes that people it.
Bulges its rough drab-colored ball,
And in and out forever flit
Black wiry shapes that people it.
Though dim to see, though frail and slight,
It teems with venom and with spite;
A bad grim thing to dwell so near
The fragrant garden's balmy cheer!
It teems with venom and with spite;
A bad grim thing to dwell so near
The fragrant garden's balmy cheer!
Ah, why, amid the vast domain
Of nature's variable reign,
Inevitably do we meet
The bitter mingled with the sweet?
Of nature's variable reign,
Inevitably do we meet
The bitter mingled with the sweet?
Why do her loveliest moods relate
To stern antagonisms of hate?
Why from her beauties do we guess
Antipodes of hideousness?
To stern antagonisms of hate?
Why from her beauties do we guess
Antipodes of hideousness?
134
These wasps that hide their baleful bands
Here in our temperate northern lands,—
Perchance, as now, where softly glows
The velvet of some wine-red rose—
Here in our temperate northern lands,—
Perchance, as now, where softly glows
The velvet of some wine-red rose—
Are kindred in strange fatal way
To the dread cobra, coldly gray,
That through fierce heats of torrid hours,
Crawls deadly under Javan flowers!
To the dread cobra, coldly gray,
That through fierce heats of torrid hours,
Crawls deadly under Javan flowers!
| Romance and revery | |