Behold the land of bloom and tomb,
Of lemon and geranium,
Of fete, fiesta, festival,
Of skies forever aestival,
Of orange false and orange real,
Orange blossom, orange peel:
Here thrives the fuchsia, here the rose
Grows and grows and grows and grows.
Behold the lawn, behold the vine
Where springs the precious anodyne
For eastern woe and eastern pain –
Hack it down, it springs again –
The bougainvillea, the plumbago
To conquer croup, to cure lumbago,
To banish ague and turn senescence
Into perpetual adolescence.
Here bendeth the begonia
Here mendeth schizophrenia,
Here go the golden hills and girls
Laughing down death with tawny curls
And poppy lips: here monks perspire
At manufacturing holy fire
To kill remorse, remove regret;
Preserve the prune, the apricot.
S.S. 1953