Of milder climes; in selfish fierce desire, And the wild fury of voluptuous sense, There lost. The very brute creation there This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire. Lo! the green serpent, from his dark abode, Which even imagination fears to tread, At noon forth-issuing, gathers up his train In orbs immense, then, darting out anew, Seeks the refreshing fount, by which diffus'd He throws his folds; and while, with threatening tongue And dreadful jaws erect, the monster curls His flaming crest, all other thirst appall'd, Or shivering flies, or check'd at distance stands, Nor dares approach. But still more direful he, The small close-lurking minister of fate, Whose high concocted venom through the veins A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift The vital current. Form'd to humble man, This child of vengeful Nature! There, sublim'd To fearless lust of blood, the savage race Roam, licens'd by the shading hour of guilt, And foul misdeed, when the pure day has shut His sacred eye. The tiger, darting fierce, Impetuous on the prey his glance has doom'd; The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er With many a spot, the beauty of the waste; And, scorning all the taming arts of man, The keen hyena, fellest of the fell: These, rushing from the inhospitable woods Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles That verdant rise amid the Libyan wild, Innumerous glare around their shaggy king, Majestic, stalking o'er the printed sand; And, with imperious and repeated roars, Demand their fated food. The fearful flocks Crowd near the guardian swain; the nobler herds, Where round their lordly bull, in rural ease, They ruminating lie, with horror hear The coming rage. The awaken'd village starts; And to her fluttering breast the mother strains Her thoughtless infant. From the pirate's den, Or stern Morocco's tyrant fang, escap'd, The wretch half-wishes for his bonds again; While, uproar all, the wilderness resounds, From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile. [Illustration: The mother strains her infant] [Illustration: Sad on the jutting eminence he sits]