A tropic heat is in my bubbling veins,

Quintessence of all savagery is mine,

The lust of ages ripens in my reins,

And burns

And yearns,

Like venom-sap within a noxious vine.

Was I a heathen? Ay, I was—am still

A fetich worshipper; but I was free

To loiter or to wander at my will,

To leap and dance,