On a Cattle Track
Where the strength of dry thunder splits hill-rocks asunder,And the shouts of the desert-wind break,By the gullies of deepness and ridges of steepness,Lo, the cattle track twists like a snake!Like a sea of dead embers, burnt white by Decembers,A plain to the left of it lies;And six fleeting horses dash down the creek coursesWith the terror of thirst in their eyes.
The false strength of fever, that deadly deceiver,Gives foot to each famishing beast;And over lands rotten, by rain-winds forgotten,The mirage gleams out in the east.Ah! the waters are hidden from riders and riddenIn a stream where the cattle track dips;And Death on their faces is scoring fierce traces,And the drouth is a fire on their lips.
It is far to the station, and gaunt DesolationIs a spectre that glooms in the way;Like a red smoke the air is, like a hell-light its glare is,And as flame are the feet of the day.The wastes are like metal that forges unsettleWhen the heat of the furnace is white;And the cool breeze that bloweth when an English sun goeth,Is unknown to the wild desert night.
A cry of distress there! a horseman the less there!The mock-waters shine like a moon!It is “Speed, and speed faster from this hole of disaster!And hurrah for yon God-sent lagoon!”Doth a devil deceive them? Ah, now let us leave them—We are burdened in life with the sad;Our portion is trouble, our joy is a bubble,And the gladdest is never too glad.
From the pale tracts of peril, past mountain heads sterile,To a sweet river shadowed with reeds,Where Summer steps lightly, and Winter beams brightly,The hoof-rutted cattle track leads.There soft is the moonlight, and tender the noon-light;There fiery things falter and fall;And there may be seen, now, the gold and the green, now,And the wings of a peace over all.
Hush, bittern and plover! Go, wind, to thy coverAway by the snow-smitten Pole!The rotten leaf falleth, the forest rain calleth;And what is the end of the whole?Some men are successful after seasons distressful[Now, masters, the drift of my tale];But the brink of salvation is a lair of damnationFor others who struggle, yet fail.