Keep their bright blossoms and their jewelled fruits,
And broad bananas flaunt their silken flags.
The spacious Pleasaunce shows on either hand
Dark verdant banks of various foliage—
Cooling the eyes, and quieting the heart—
"With parterres interspersed, and rose-thickets,
And sheets of fiery Indian marigolds,
Moon-flowers, and shell-flowers; crimson panoply
Of the silk-cottons, and soft lilac light
Where sunbeams sift through Bougainvilliers:
Pink oleander-sprays you mark, fig-blooms,
Stars of the champak, tulip-cups, and spikes
Of silver-studded aloes, with red gold
Of peacock-bushes, and fair deadly bells
Of white datura. What most holds the eye,
Leading it onward towards the sight of sights,
Is yon black avenue of thuja-trees
With cypress intermixed, ranged, all the way,
On either border of the broad paved path,
Page:With Sa'di in the Garden, or The Book of Love (1888).djvu/22
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WITH SA'DI IN THE GARDEN;
