There! up-side, and standing on their heads!

Tumble-down woods in a tumble-down world.

The sun was still a-bed; the wind asleep;

And slumberous sprawled the lake

So calm and yet so treacherous.

There, like a belly-full python with room for more,

Scans the lake with meek sardonic smile the world of men—

Herself the mirror of the world that lives by her. In it

The tumble-down world of trees and hills and the sky,

Double-living in regions twain. The blades of grass so still.

Palm and bamboo leaves so staid. No waft of wind disturbs

The mighty flood. Not a ripple, not a shimmer. All, all calm.

The tumble-down woods so still!

From the stillness and the hush, —from the depths of the lake come

voices none

May hear, but all, all understand.