Toru Dutt

SONNET

A sea of foliage girds  our garden round,
But not a sea of dull unvaried green,
Sharp contrasts of all colors here are seen;
The light-green graceful tamarinds abound
Amid the mango clumps of green profound,
And palms arise, like pillars gray, between;
And o'er the quiet pools the seemuls lean,
Red--red, and startling like a trumpet's sound.
But nothing can be lovelier than the ranges
Of bamboos to the eastward, when the moon
Looks through their gaps, and the white lotus changes
Into a cup of silver. One might swoon
Drunken with beauty then, or gaze and gaze
On a primeval Eden,in amaze.

OUR CASUARINA TREE

But not because of its magnificence 
Dear is the casuarina tree to my soul: 
Beneath it we have played; though years mayroll 
O sweet companions, loved with loveintense, 
For your sakes shall the tree be everdear! 
Blent with your images, it shall arise 
In memory, till the hot tears blind mineeyes! 
What is that dirge-like murmur that Ihear 
Like the sea breaking on a shingle-beach? 
It is the tree's lament, an eerie speech, 
That haply to the unknown land may reach.
 "Unknown, yet well-known to the eyeof faith! 
Ah, I have heard that wail far, far away 
In distant lands, by many a shelteredbay, 
When slumbered in his cave thewater-wraith 
And the waves gently kissed the classicshore 
Of France or Italy, beneath the moon 
When earth lay tranced in a dreamlessswoon: 
And every time the music rose-- before 
Mine inner vision rose a form sublime, 
Thy form, O tree, as in my happy prime 
I saw thee, in my own loved native clime...