Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/130

 SLEEP'S THRESHOLD. gauzy shapes of shadow wind
 * Across the soul's husht meadow-plain,
 * In forms that fade and glow again,

When sleep first dawns upon the mind.

Like light-limbed antelopes, that skim
 * Across the wide and waste Karoo,
 * In changing combinations new

Their mingling masses hover dim.

They float and flit in wizard ways,
 * Above, below, and in, and out,
 * A reckless-ranging, lissom rout,

That takes no heed of roads nor days.

They are not thralls of space nor time,
 * These dwellers on the skirts of death;
 * They tread not earth, they breathe not breath,

Their homes are not of earthly clime.

Their tresses float on airless breeze,
 * Their raiment hath not woof nor warp,
 * Their music as a soundless harp

No sense may soothe nor ear appease.

The shadows, they of undreamt dreams,
 * The wraiths of buried hopes and fears,
 * The vapour fumed from fallen tears,

The masks of what is not, yet seems.