Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/132

116 The desert, like a sea-floor vast,

Exultantly I saw;

Yet distant heights that pierced the blue,

Still troubled me with awe;

And when, turned from the mountains,

I passed beyond the brush

Where a sea-floor without weed or shell

Burns breathless in the hush,

There came mirage my sense to mock

With grasses sweet and lush.

Thirst, not as that for water,—

A thirst ne'er felt before,—

Parched gradual in the soul of me

Till I could bear no more;

Earth seemed to cry: "Now whither fly

From the dearth you struggled for?"

Reluctant, slow returning

The common lot to share,

With a new and strange emotion—

Half longing, half despair,

I said: "For man is no escape:

Here bides the Law, as there!"