The Snake Charmer

I: The forest rears on lifted arms
Its leafy dome whence verdurous light
Shakes through the shady depths and warms
Proud trunk and stealthy parasite,
There where those cruel coils enclasp
The trees they strangle in their grasp.

II: An old man creeps from out the woods,
Breaking the vine's entangling spell;
He thrids the jungle's solitudes
O'er bamboos rotting where they fell;
Slow down the tiger's path he wends
Where at the pool the jungle ends.