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 courses With 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 ridden In 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 Desolation Is 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 unsettle When 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 cover Away 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 damnation For others who struggle,yet fail.
