The Poetry of South Africa

The girl I love was bred and born Close to the “winding” neck of Horn,[20] ’Neath Cashan’s purple splendour. She is so fair, she is so good, That, in her simple womanhood, You c...

And He showed me a River, whose life-giving waters Are pure and like crystal so clear. It flows from the throne of the merciful Father, And Jesus our Saviour so dear.

The pulpit he mounts, as the tyrant his throne,-- And bawls to the young and the hoary, With a scowl and a gesture, a stamp and a tone Which plainly belie his own story.

But is it so? And I have really trod Thy soil again? Or did I only _dream_? Methought I mingled with thy multitudes, And saw the swarms of thy industrial hives Plying their ceas...

’Twas a beautiful evening:--towards the calm west The god of the summer triumphantly rolled; As the glory gates oped to receive their bright guest They let out a torrent of heav...

Why come they here, amidst the desert’s gloom? To raise a nation from a lifeless tomb; To bid fair plains the fruits of labour yield; To tend the flock; to plough the fertile fi...

Lo! where he crouches by the Kloof’s dark side, Eyeing the farmer’s lowing herds, afar; Impatient watching till the evening star Leads forth the twilight dim, that he may glide...

Afar in the desert I love to ride, With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side: Away, away, in the wilderness vast, Where the white man’s foot hath never passed, And the quivered...

The day was long sped, The stars overhead For three hours or longer their glimmer had shed, Since the sun had retired remarkably red, As if the Atlantic had flown to his head, W...

Over the chimney-pots, over the tiles, Over the gardens, two square miles, Float the sounds of that warlike blast, Proclaiming approaching relief at last. Doubt has fled, Fear h...

To tread once more with gladsome feet The thronging street, the busy mart; To feel again the mighty beat Of England’s wondrous heart! But, though I long, I murmur not, For Heave...

Delicate, fragile, tiny shell, Thou hast a wondrous tale to tell. I find thee here on the ocean strand;-- The billows have borne thee safe to land: Yet those billows have proved...

_P._--You’ve missed the mark, Fairbairn: my breast is clear. Nor wild romance nor pride allured me here: Duty and destiny with equal voice Constrained my steps: I had no other c...

This collection of verse has been made from various sources in the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal, and it is a matter of regret that many pieces of interest have been omi...

I seek not with a weak and untuned lyre To sound the praise of Cheop’s mighty pile, Where toiling myriads, higher and still higher, In the dim past, beside the swirling Nile, He...