Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/51

 THE VOICES OF NATURE.

various song

Of chanting birds that sweetly throng

Their native skies,

Or careless hopping, wanton on

Earth's leafy trees;

The busy hum of droning bees;

The chirruping and piping thrill

Of insect life on vale and hill;

The brooding turtle's coo;

The distant lowing herd and bleating sheep,

That soothe the drowsy sluggard's early sleep;

The croak and drum of frogs, and whistle too

That from the marsh arise;

The soughing wind;

The tempest raging and unkind,

In forest dim and lonely wood,

The cascade dashing down the glen;

The fountain laughing in the fen;

The wildly-warbling, running brook—

A thread of silver sheen,

That warbles past

Where poets love to dream,

With shades of spreading boughs o'ercast,

And golden sunshine oft between—

A little rhyme from nature's book;

The murmur of the river's flow,

Crooning soft and low,

Gliding, gliding to the sea,