# A Treasury of South African Poetry and Verse

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THOMAS PRINGLE
(BORN 1788; DIED 1834),
THE FATHER OF SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY.
A TREASURY OF
South African Poetry and Verse
COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES AND ARRANGED BY EDWARD HEATH CROUCH, CAMBRIDGE, SOUTH AFRICA.
London and Felling-on-Tyne: THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD. NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14TH STREET.
J. C. JUTA & CO., CAPE TOWN, PORT ELIZABETH, GRAHAMSTOWN, JOHANNESBURG, EAST LONDON, STELLENBOSCH, AND DURBAN (NATAL). 1907.
TO MY WIFE,
WHOSE INTEREST, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND NICE CRITICAL
FACULTY HAVE HELPED ME NOT A LITTLE IN
COMPILING THIS SELECTION OF
SOUTH AFRICAN POEMS.
La Croix,
Cambridge,
Cape Colony,
1907.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Perceval Gibbon—
W. E. Hunter—
R. J. T. Jefferson—
"Rip van Winkle"—
John Runcie—
Herbert Price—
W. C. Scully—
Rev. H. H. Dugmore—
F. C. Kolbe—
Lance Fallaw—
Thomas Pringle—
William Rodger Thomson—
M. J. MacMahon—
G. E. Bulger—
W. Selwyn—
Herbert Tucker—
"Mu"—
G. Longmore—
E. B. Watermeyer—
John Noble—
"Kappa"—
Ralph Renaude—
Amy Sutherland—
Anonymous—
J. G.—
J. R.—
T. W.—
J. S. Judd—
John Fairbairn—
"Thistle"—
Anonymous—
Z.—
"Omicron"—
Cullen Gouldsbury—
Anonymous—
Religious and Metaphysical poems.
Rev. A Vine Hall—
Thomas Pringle
George Kett—
W. C. Scully—
J. R. E.—
J. P. Ritchie—
F. C. Kolbe—
INTRODUCTION.
To make a selection of the best and most familiar poetry any country has produced is, I conceive, a desirable as well as pleasing object; and to make a selection of the verse—in many cases very scattered—of a young country, which has hitherto produced no really great poet, and whose poetry in many cases has not extended beyond mediocrity, is, I think, not only desirable but essential. The present volume is therefore an attempt to collect and arrange such. The object has been to make a selection from a selection; in short, to give, as far as material would allow, true and faithful specimens of the best which our poetical writers have hitherto given us. Such a selection—which, I trust, will merit the name of a "Treasury"—does, I hope, no injustice to the authors who have already published their poems in book form; on the contrary, I hope that it may tend to popularize their works still more, by directing more attention to them, and thereby stimulating a desire to possess complete editions. It also fulfils the useful purpose of saving perhaps from oblivion some gem or worthy song which would otherwise lie forgotten in dry-as-dust pages of old Cape magazines or journals.
​It is hoped that a selection like this will have the desirable effect of stimulating and fostering the too latent taste in the young colonial mind for the best in poetry which his country has hitherto produced, or may ultimately produce.
Certain it is that no country should oftener pause in its ardent materialistic pursuits to find in poetry that relief and support in its strenuous life, than South Africa. We cannot be too often reminded of Matthew Arnold's assurance, that "more and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us." That is a duty ore owe to ourselves. True, South African poetry at present may not be able to satisfy this demand in its entirety. "The breath and finer spirit" are often wanting, but "the light that never was on land or sea"—the poet's dream—has been felt, and is striving for utterance. Whether the voice will be a lasting one depends largely upon the demand made by the people. They have, consciously or unconsciously, the destiny of the poetry of the future in their hands. Given sympathy, and a high standard demanded, the poet's lyre will respond; ignored, stifled—the result will be silence, possibly death, and the loss South African.
Then again, it is felt that there is a large and growing field of readers across the water who, interested probably by ties of kinship, would welcome a volume of verse resonant of the voices and sentiments of those living under Southern skies. To them, such a selection ​as the present one may prove both interesting and valuable. It would be interesting by reason of reflecting what I might term the local colour, with all its brilliancy and uniqueness—those specially distinctive features of South African scenery, as shown in its grand and rugged mountains, boundless karoo, and rolling veldt; it would be valuable by reason of rescuing its native folk-lore and legend from oblivion, and weaving around them the glamour of song, as has been done in Australia by Adam Lindsay Gordon and Kendall, and in America by Longfellow and Bryant.
In compiling the present volume from a very scattered field of fugitive and other poetry—in some cases going back to the days of the British settlers—the length of the poem has been one of the determining factors, and some poems have thus regretfully had to be omitted. War poems, martial lays, and to a certain extent religious poems have also been largely excluded; the former entirely so, on account of their diction or rougher form setting ill amongst the necessarily more musical lyric, or even sonnet. The latter class, however, possessing all the essential qualifications of devotional verse, has been relegated to a place at the end of the volume.
Lest the word "Treasury" should to some appear suggestive of claiming a position for the volume analogous to that of Palgrave's incomparable and unique selection, let me say at once such an idea surely could never be seriously entertained. To the ​literature glorifying a thousand years, "the idle singers of an empty day" here would be the first to do homage. Still, it is hoped and believed that in the fairer and more just comparison with the productions of such sister colonies as New Zealand, Australia, and even Canada, it will he found that relatively South Africa compares not unfavourably, despite the fact—a very vital one, too—that these colonies have (with the one exception) been favoured in possessing from their earliest history more uniformity of language, greater sympathy between the various sections of its peoples, and above all, fortunate in the experience of a calmer flow in their historic annals, which has rendered possible—nay, even fostered that mental and social condition, that finer spirit of harmony and feeling from which the loftiest song is always born.
E. H. CROUCH.
July 1907.
NOTE.
My hearty thanks are due to the authors whose full names appear in the Contents, for permission so readily and courteously granted to include some of their poems in this collection. Also to that pioneer in Cape anthology, the Hon. A. Wilmot, M.L.A.; to Messrs. Juta & Co., T. Maskew Miller, Thompson & Co., Macmillan & Co., T. Fisher Unwin, William Blackwood & Sons, Elliot Stock, Longmans, Green & Co., and Sampson Low, Marston & Co., for permission to make use of scattered verse which has either appeared in periodicals or books published by them. There are others whose address is untraceable, by reason of their attaching their initials or a nom de plume to their compositions; to all such I trust this acknowledgment of indebtedness will suffice.
E. H. C.
Upon the horizon gleams the light Of breaking dawn.... Thy name has been slave of the world, But when thy banner is unfurl'd, Triumphant Liberty shall wave Its standard o'er foul slavery's grave; And earth—decaying earth—shall see
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