Black Beetles in Amber

I dreamed that I was poor and sick and sad,

Broken in hope and weary of my life;

My ventures all miscarrying—naught had

For all my labor in the heat and strife.

And in my heart some certain thoughts were rife

Of an unsummoned exit. As I lay

Considering my bitter state, I cried:

"Alas! that hither I did ever stray.

Better in some fair country to have died

Than live in such a land, where Fortune never

(Unless he be successful) crowns Endeavor."

Then, even as I lamented, lo! there came

A troop of Presences—I knew not whence

Nor what they were: thought cannot rightly name

What's known through spiritual evidence,

Reported not by gross material sense.

"Why come ye here?" I seemed to cry (though naught

My sleeping tongue did utter) to the first—

"What are ye?—with what woful message fraught?

Ye have a ghastly look, as ye had burst

Some sepulcher in memory. Weird creatures,

I'm sure I'd know you if ye had but features."

Some subtle organ noted the reply

(Inaudible to ear of flesh the tone):

"The Finest Climate in the World am I,

From Siskiyou to San Diego known—

From the Sierra to the sea. The zone

Called semi-tropical I've pulled about

And placed it where it does most good, I trust.

I shake my never-failing bounty out

Alike upon the just and the unjust."

"That's very true," said I, "but when 'tis shaken

My share by the unjust is ever taken."

"Permit me," it resumed, "now to present

My eldest son, the Champagne Atmosphere,

And others to rebuke your discontent—

The Mammoth Squash, Strawberry All the Year,

The fair No Lightning—flashing only here—

The Wholesome Earthquake and Italian Sky,

With its Unstriking Sun; and last, not least,

The Compos Mentis Dog. Now, ingrate, try

To bring a better stomach to the feast:

When Nature makes a dance and pays the piper,

To be unhappy is to be a viper!"

"Why, yet," said I, "with all your blessings fine

(And Heaven forbid that I should speak them ill)

I yet am poor and sick and sad. Ye shine

With more of splendor than of heat: for still,

Although my will is warm, my bones are chill."

"Then warm you with enthusiasm's blaze—

Fortune waits not on toil," they cried; "O then

Join the wild chorus clamoring our praise—

Throw up your beaver and throw down you pen!"

"Begone!" I shouted. They bewent, a-smirking,

And I, awakening, fell straight a-working.