SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
Thro' every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-
dust is blown.
We have had enough of action, and of motion we. 150
Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge
was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-
fountains in the sea.
Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind. 155
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly
curl'd
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming
world:
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring
deeps and fiery sands, 160
Clanging fights, and (laming towns, and sinking ships,
and praying hands.
But they smile, they find a music entered in a doleful
song
Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of
wrong,
Like a tale of little meaning tho' the words are strong ;
Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the
soil, 165
Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,
vStoring .yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil;
Till they perish and they suffer—some, 'tis whisper'd
down in hell
Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys
dwell,
203