Hold the enchanted secret theirs:
Like a high and radiant ocean,
Over wonders of its own;
Wave-like, palm by palm is stirred,
Who can say what thing it bears?
In the wide leaves' restless world.
But the crimson bird hath fed
Crossing forest and savannah,
Who is ruler of each race
Life and death and dream have made
Lisp and murmur back again,
Lofty palm to palm hath taught,
While a single vast liana
Glowing, revelling, and dying?
Dwelling there for years and years,
Rapturous souls of perfume, hurled
Yellow winding water-lane,
All the fair palm world in motion;
Crowned with sunset and sunrise,
Waving from green zone to zone,
All one brotherhood hath wrought,
And the day sings one rich word,
Mysteries in many a shade,
Trackless, untraversed, unknown,
And the sun alone hath seen,
Blazing bird and blooming flower,
Living in each boundless place,
Hollow haunt and hidden bower
With the flower hath been wed.
Dwarf cane and tall marití.
And ripe under-worlds deliver
And the flower in soft explosion
Changeless through the centuries.
Up to where green oceans quiver
And the great night comes replying.
Closed alike to sun and shower.
Many thousand years have been,
Mighty, luminous, and calm
Growing, flowering, and flying,
And its long luxuriant thought
Fig-tree, buttress-tree, banana,
With its mate of equal red,
And the bird sings to the bird,
Is the country of the palm,
Long red reaches of the cane,
Under blue unbroken skies,
Verdant isle and amber river,
Binding fern and coco-tree,