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Hills clothed with graceful forests or rough with jagged rocks,
Slopes purple as Hymettus, the wild thyme in his locks,
Or ledges steeply shelving, whence silken tangles fall
In broad and flowing fringes, as wrought for regal pall ;
Valleys, where clustering thickets of crimson coral grow,
Where flowers the fair astrea white as the maybloom's
snow.
"With pearly tassels drooping, the actinia here is seen,
And there the crimpled sea-fan named of the foam-born
queen ;
Anemones and daisies and lilies scarcely blown,
Arrayed in robes of splendor are o'er those gardens strewn.
Not Jove's bloom-loving daughter e'er gathered buds so
bright
Where Mongibello weareth his crown of flame by night.
Broad palm-like plumes are waving o'er beds of branching
moss,
And polished sea-vines flaunting in mazy turnings cross,
Then twine in garlands braided with living buds and flowers,
Whose amaranthine beauty shames Flora's choicest bowers ;
