Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/227

Rh ::And ah! what rose could yield To my sick sense, surcharged with dust and heat,
 * A fragrance half as sweet
 * As smell of moistened field!


 * Rather mine ears had heard,

Waking, the swish of rain like surging seas
 * Sound through the swaying trees
 * Than blithest song of bird;


 * And fairer to mine eyes

Some frowning dawn, rain-drenched and tempest torn,
 * Than this soft azure morn
 * Breathing of Paradise!

Herbert Tucker.