Jamaica

I know an island which the sunStays in his course to shine upon,As if it were for this green isleAlone he kept his fondest smile.Long his rays delaying floodIts remotest solitude,Mountain, dell, and palmy wood,And the coral sands aroundThat hear the blue sea's chiming sound.

It is a watered island, oneThe upland rains pour down upon.Oft the westward-floating cloudTo some purple crest is bowed,While the tangled vapors seekTo escape from peak and peak,Yield themselves, and break, or glideThrough deep forests undescried,Mourning their lost pathway wide.

In this land of woods and streamsCeaseless Summer paints her dreams:White, bewildered torrents fall,Dazzled by her morning beams,With an outcry musicalFrom the ridges, plainward all;Mists of pearl, arising there,Mark their courses in the air,Sunlit, magically fair.

Here the pilgrim may beholdHow the bended cocoa wavesWhen at eve and morn a breezeBlows to and from the Carib seas,How the lush banana leavesFrom their braided trunk unfold;How the mango wears its gold,And the sceptred aloe's bloomGlorifies it for the tomb.

When the day has ended quite,Splendor fills the drooping skies;All is beauty, naught is night.Then the Crosses twain arise,Southward far, above the deep,And the moon their light outvies.Hark! the wakened lute and songThat to this fond clime belong,—All is music, naught is sleep.

Isle of plenty, isle of love!In the low, encircling plainLaboring Afric, loaded wain,Bearing sweets and spices, move;On the happy heights aboveLove his seat has chosen well,Dreamful ease and silence dwell,Life is all entranced, and timePasses like a tinkling rhyme.

Ah, on those cool heights to dwellYielded to the island's spell!There from some low-whispering mouthTo learn the secret of the South,Or to watch dark eyes that closeWhen their sleep the noondays bring,(List, the palm leaves murmuring!)And the wind that comes and goesSmells of every flower that blows.

Or from ocean to descryGreen plantations sloping nigh,Starry peaks, of beryl hewn,Whose strong footholds hidden lieFurlong deep beneath the sea!Long the mariners wistfullyLandward gaze, and say aright,"Under sun or under moonEarth has no more beauteous sight!"