Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/187

 EVENING RAMBLES. sultry summer-noon is past; And mellow evening comes at last, With a low and languid breeze Fanning the mimosa trees, That cluster o'er the yellow vale, And oft perfume the panting gale With fragrance faint: it seems to tell Of primrose tufts in Scottish dell, Peeping forth in tender spring When the blithe lark begins to sing.

But soon, amidst our Libyan vale, Such soothing recollections fail; Soon we raise the eye to range O'er prospects wild, grotesque, and strange: Sterile mountains, rough and steep, That bound abrupt the valley deep, Heaving to the clear blue sky Their ribs of granite, bare and dry, And ridges by the torrents worn, Thinly streaked with scraggy thorn, Which fringes nature's savage dress, Yet scarce relieves her nakedness.

But where the vale winds deep below The landscape hath a warmer glow: There the spekboom spreads its bowers Of light green leaves and lilac flowers;