O sweet are tropic lands for waking dreams! <br />There time and life move lazily along. <br />There by the banks of blue-and-silver streams <br />Grass-sheltered crickets chirp incessant song, <br />Gay-colored lizards loll all through the day, <br />Their tongues outstretched for careless little flies, <br />And swarthy children in the fields at play, <br />Look upward laughing at the smiling skies. <br />A breath of idleness is in the air <br />That casts a subtle spell upon all things, <br />And love and mating-time are everywhere, <br />And wonder to life's commonplaces clings. <br />The fluttering humming-bid darts through the trees <br />And dips his long beak in the big bell-flowers, <br />The leisured buzzard floats upon the breeze, <br />Riding a crescent cloud for endless hours, <br />The sea beats softly on the emerald strands-- <br />O sweet for quiet dreams are tropic lands!<br /><br />Claude McKay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/north-and-south/
