BEFORE us in the sultry dawn arose Indigo-tinted mountains; and ere noon We near'd an isle that lay like a festoon, And shar'd the ocean's glittering repose. We saw plantations spotted with white huts; Estates midst orange groves and towering trees; Rich yellow lawns embrown'd by soft degrees; Plots of intense gold freak'd with shadynuts. A dead hot silence tranced sea, land, and sky: And now a long canoe came gliding forth, Wherein there sat an old man fierce and swarth, Tiger-faced, black-fang'd, and with jaundiced eye. Pure white, with pale blue chequer'd, and red fold Of head-cloth 'neath straw brim, this Master wore; While in the sun-glare stood with high-rais'd oar A naked Image all of burnish'd gold. Golden his bones -- high-valued in the mart, His minted muscles, and his glossy skin; Golden his life of action -- but within The slave is human in a bleeding heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FLAMING HEART by RICHARD CRASHAW DESERT FLOWERS by KEITH CASTELLAINE DOUGLAS TO SOME LADIES [ON RECEIVING A CURIOUS SHELL] by JOHN KEATS A MATCH by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE WEDDED (PROVENCAL AIR) by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 21. 'TIS CONSTANCY THAT GAINS THE PRIZE by PHILIP AYRES |