Deep in the forest-depths the tribe A mighty blazing fire have made: Round this they spring with frantic yells In hideous pigments all arrayed -- One barred with yellow ochre, one A skeleton in startling white, There one who dances furiously Blood-red against the great fire's light, -- With death's insignia on his breast, In rude design, the swart chief springs; And loud and long each echoes back The savage war-cry that he sings. Within the forest dark and dim The startled cockatoos like ghosts Flit to and fro, the mopokes scream; And parrots rise in chattering hosts; The gins and lubras crouch and watch With eager shining brute-like eyes, And ever and again shrill back Wild echoes of the frantic cries: -- Like some infernal scene it is -- The forest dark, the blazing fire, The ghostly birds, the dancing fiends, Whose savage chant swells ever higher. Afar away gaunt wild-dogs howl, And strange cries vaguely call: but white The placid moon sails on, and flame The silent stars above the night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A BLUEBELL by EMILY JANE BRONTE A PSALM OF LIFE by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW YUSSOUF by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE RUINES OF TIME by EDMUND SPENSER THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: APRIL by EDMUND SPENSER THE LOST CHILD by ST. CLAIR ADAMS THE GODODDIN: THE DEATH OF HOEL by ANEIRIN |