Songs of Jamaica (1912)
Beneath the Yampy Shade
[Footnote on title: “Yampy”[1]]
WE sit beneat' de yampy shade,
My lee sweetheart an' I;
De gully[2] ripples 'cross de glade,
Tom Rafflins[3] hurry by.
Her pa an' ma about de fiel'
Are brukin'[4] sugar-pine;
An' plenty, plenty is de yiel',
Dem look so pink[5] an' fine.
We listen to a rapturous chune
Outpourin' from above;
De swee-swees, blithesome birds of June,
They sing to us of love.
She plays wid de triangle leaves,
Her hand within mine slips;
She murmurs love, her bosom heaves,
I kiss her ripe, ripe lips.
De cockstones[6] raise deir droopin' heads
To view her pretty feet;
De skellions[7] trimble in deir beds,
Dey grudge our Iub so sweet —
Love sweeter than a bridal dream,
A mudder's fondest kiss
Love purer than a crystal stream,
De height of eart'ly bliss.
We hear again de swee-swees' song
Outpourin' on de air;
Dey sing for yout', an' we are young
An' know naught 'bouten care.
We sit beneat' de yampy shade,
We pledge our hearts anew;
De swee-swees droop, de bell-flowers[8] fade
Before our love so true.
- The Yampy, or Indian Yam, has very beautiful triangular leaves. Yams of all kinds climb, like hops, on sticks or trees ↵
- Brook. The word is more generally used in the sense of precipice ↵
- Mad ants, which run very quickly ↵
- Breaking. Pine-apples are gathered by bending down the stalk, which snaps cleanly off ↵
- Choice, nice. Cf. the phrase, Pink of perfection ↵
- Red peas, French beans ↵
- Scallions—a non-bulbing onion ↵
- Datura saveolens, whose great white trumpets flag as the sun gets hot ↵