Down by the Carib Sea + 

I + 

Sunrise in the Tropics + 

Sol, Sol, mighty lord of the tropic zone, + 

Here I wait with the trembling stars + 

To see thee once more take thy throne. + 

There the patient palm tree watching + 

Waits to say, “Good morn” to thee, + 

And a throb of expectation + 

Pulses through the earth and me. + 

Now, o’er nature falls a hush, + 

Look! the East is all a-blush; + 

And a growing crimson crest + 

Dims the late stars in the west; + 

Now, a flood of golden light + 

Sweeps across the silver night, + 

Swift the pale moon fades away + 

Before the light-girt King of Day, + 

See! the miracle is done! + 

Once more behold! The Sun! + 

II + 

Los Cigarillos + 

This is the land of the dark-eyed gente, + 

Of the dolce far niente, + 

Where we dream away + 

Both the night and day, + 

At night-time in sleep our dreams we invoke, + 

Our dreams come by day through the redolent smoke, + 

As it lazily curls, + 

And slowly unfurls + 

From our lips, + 

And the tips + 

Of our fragrant cigarillos. + 

For life in the tropics is only a joke, + 

So we pass it in dreams, and we pass it in smoke, + 

Smoke⁠—smoke⁠—smoke. + 

Tropical constitutions + 

Call for occasional revolutions; + 

But after that’s through, + 

Why there’s nothing to do + 

But smoke⁠—smoke; + 

For life in the tropics is only a joke, + 

So we pass it in dreams, and we pass it in smoke, + 

Smoke⁠—smoke⁠—smoke. + 

III + 

Teestay + 

Of tropic sensations, the worst + 

Is, sin duda, the tropical thirst. + 

When it starts in your throat and constantly grows, + 

Till you feel that it reaches down to your toes, + 

When your mouth tastes like fur + 

And your tongue turns to dust, + 

There’s but one thing to do, + 

And do it you must, + 

Drink teestay. + 

Teestay, a drink with a history, + 

A delicious, delectable mystery, + 

“Cinco centavos el vaso, señor,” + 

If you take one, you will surely want more. + 

Teestay, teestay, + 

The national drink on a feast day; + 

How it coolingly tickles, + 

As downward it trickles, + 

Teestay, teestay. + 

And you wish, as you take it down at a quaff, + 

That your neck was constructed à la giraffe. + 

Teestay, teestay. + 

IV + 

The Lottery Girl + 

“Lottery, lottery, + 

Take a chance at the lottery? + 

Take a ticket, + 

Or, better, take two; + 

Who knows what the future + 

May hold for you? + 

Lottery, lottery, + 

Take a chance at the lottery?” + 

Oh, limpid-eyed girl, + 

I would take every chance, + 

If only the prize + 

Were a love-flashing glance + 

From your fathomless eyes. + 

“Lottery, lottery, + 

Try your luck at the lottery? + 

Consider the size + 

Of the capital prize, + 

And take tickets + 

For the lottery. + 

Tickets, señor? Tickets, señor? + 

Take a chance at the lottery?” + 

Oh, crimson-lipped girl, + 

With the magical smile, + 

I would count that the gamble + 

Were well worth the while, + 

Not a chance would I miss, + 

If only the prize + 

Were a honey-bee kiss + 

Gathered in sips + 

From those full-ripened lips, + 

And a love-flashing glance + 

From your eyes. + 

V + 

The Dancing Girl + 

Do you know what it is to dance? + 

Perhaps, you do know, in a fashion; + 

But by dancing I mean, + 

Not what’s generally seen, + 

But dancing of fire and passion, + 

Of fire and delirious passion. + 

With a dusky-haired señorita, + 

Her dark, misty eyes near your own, + 

And her scarlet-red mouth, + 

Like a rose of the south, + 

The reddest that ever was grown, + 

So close that you catch + 

Her quick-panting breath + 

As across your own face it is blown, + 

With a sigh, and a moan. + 

Ah! that is dancing, + 

As here by the Carib it’s known. + 

Now, whirling and twirling + 

Like furies we go; + 

Now, soft and caressing + 

And sinuously slow; + 

With an undulating motion, + 

Like waves on a breeze-kissed ocean:⁠— + 

And the scarlet-red mouth + 

Is nearer your own, + 

And the dark, misty eyes + 

Still softer have grown. + 

Ah! that is dancing, that is loving, + 

As here by the Carib they’re known. + 

VI + 

Sunset in the Tropics + 

A silver flash from the sinking sun, + 

Then a shot of crimson across the sky + 

That, bursting, lets a thousand colors fly + 

And riot among the clouds; they run, + 

Deepening in purple, flaming in gold, + 

Changing, and opening fold after fold, + 

Then fading through all of the tints of the rose into gray, + 

Till, taking quick fright at the coming night, + 

They rush out down the west, + 

In hurried quest + 

Of the fleeing day. + 

Now above where the tardiest color flares a moment yet, + 

One point of light, now two, now three are set + 

To form the starry stairs⁠— + 

And, in her fire-fly crown, + 

Queen Night, on velvet slippered feet, comes softly down. + 