Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/52

 Like Time to broad Eternity;

And, from its breast,

The startled whirr and cry of wildfowl from its nest,

Disturbed from rest;

The Ocean's changeful song,

Now low and sweet, now deep and strong—

Oft waking in an angry mood

In tempest rude,

Oft wantoning among the scattered shingle,

Where wild waves laugh

And idly chaff,

Till all come dancing in and break and mingle;

The watch-dog's honest bark;

The hearty cheer of chanticleer;

The cries of weary beasts, that shun

The face of man in desert dun

And forest wild and dark;

The thunder-bolt that shakes the ground;

The strong glad voice of man—of all the sweetest sound!

In these and other voices

This planet-world rejoices,

And rolls, and rolls with merry rhyme

Along its sphere,

And with a varied song sublime

Still strives to cheer

The flight of Ages and the march of Time!

Dormant in Man—and not in Man alone—

There is another voice—a deeper tone—

That lives and dies,

And lives again;

A yearning, dim and strange—