Hawk.

Far in the dreamy East there grows a

plant
Whose native home is the Suns Cousins
garden
All the Ladies. O, it is Tea.
Hawk.
It is.
The Ladies.
To think of Tea!
Hawk. Its home lies far in the Valley of
Romance,
A thousand miles beyond the wilderness.
(Fill up my cup! I thank you Let us have
On Tea and Love a good tea-table talk!)
It has its home away in Fable land;
Alas! and there too is the home of Love:
Only the Children of the Sun, we know,
Can cultivate the herb or tend it well;
And even so it is with Love, my friends!
A drop of sun-blood needs must circulate
Through our dull veins before the
passionate Love
Can root itself or shoot or blossom forth.
Miss Magpie. But love and love are
everywhere the same,
Tea has varieties and qualities.
Mrs. Strawman. Yes! tea is bad or good, or
pretty good.
Anna. The young green shoots are thought
the best of all.
Svanhild. That kind is only for the Suns
bright Daughters.
A Young Lady. They say that it intoxicates,
like ether.
Another. Fragrant as lotus and as sweet as
almond.
Guldsted. That kind of import never reaches
us.
Hawk. I think that in his nature every one

Has got a little Heavenly Empire in

him
Where, on the twigs, a thousand such
sweet buds
Form under shadow of that falling Wall
Of China, bashfulness; where,
underneath
The shelter of the quaint kiosk, there sigh
A troop of Fancys little China Dolls,
Who dream, and dream, with damask
round their loins,
And in their hands a golden tulip-flower.
The first-fruits of Loves harvest were for
them;
And we just have the rubbish and the
stalks.
And now the last point of similitude:
See how the hand of culture presses
down
The Heavenly Empire out in the far
East!
Its great Wall moulders, and its strength
is gone;
The last of genuine Mandarins is hangd,
And Foreign Devils gather in the crops.
Soon the whole thing will merely be a
legend,
A wonder-story nobody believes:
The whole wide world is painted grey on
grey;
And Wonderland for ever is gone past.
But have we Love? O where, O where is
Love?
Nay! Love is also banishd out of sight.
But let us bow before the age we live in!
Drink! drink in tea to Love discrownd
and dead!