Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-01-08
POETRY Y.
AFFAIR In THE DESERT.
BY THOMAS PRINGLE.

mar IN tue desert l love 10 roe,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side;
When the sorrows Of life the soul o'crcast,
And, sick Of the present, | cling to the past
When the eye is sufIused with r%cgrettul tears,
From the fond recollections Of former years
And shadows Of things that have long since
Fit over the brain, like ghosts Of the dead:
Bright visions of glory, that vanished TOO
Day-dreams, that departed ere manhood's
noon;
Attachments, by fate or by falschcod ref;
Companions Of carly days, lost or left;
And my native land, whose magical name
Thrills to the heart like electric fame;
The home of my childhood the hauHts Of
my prime;
All the passions and scenes Of that rapturou.
time
When the feelings were young and the world
was new,
Like the fresh bowers Of Eden unfolding to
view;
All, all now iorsaken, forgotten, ~forronc;
And |, a lone exile, remembered by none;
My high aims abandoned, my good acts un-
done.
Aweary of all that is under the sun -
With that sadness Of heart which no stranger
may sean,
fly to the desert afar from man!
Afar in the desert ! love to ride,
With the silent Dush-boy alone by my side,
When the wild turmoil Of this wearisome
life,
With its scenes of corruption, oppression and
strife;
The proud mans frown and the base mans
fear,
The coornar'e 1,pnh, ,,J t1o e,,T ,r.r', .a,r
And malice, and meanness, and lalsehood,
and folly,
Dispose me to musing and dark melancholy;
When my bosom is full, and my thoughts
are high,
And my soul is sick with the bondman's !
slgh,- S
o. then there is freedom, and joy, and pride, {
Afar in the desert alone to ride I! d
is rapture to vault on the chsmping G
steed, 1
And to bound away with the eagles speed, l.
the death-frdught frelock in my hand g
The only law Of the desert land a
Afr in the desert I love to ride, G
the silent Bush-boy alone by my side; Il
Away, away from the dwellings Of men, n
BY the wild deer's haunt, and the bulIalo's b
glen; h
By the valleys remote where the oribi plays, {
Where the gnu, the ~gazelle, and the hafte- Ia
beest craze, n
And the kudu and Gland unlimited recline d
the skirts Of gray forests o]'erhung with n
wiid-yine; il
the elephant browses at peace in his b
wood, Ia
And the riyer-horse gam5ols unscared in the T.
flood, a
And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at Will !.
In the fen where the wild ass is d drinking his c
fill.
Afr in the desert | love to ride, :
the silent Bush-boy alone by my side; r.
the brown karroo, where the leeting q
cry =
Of The springbok's fawn sounds plaintively, !
And the timorous quagga's shriIl-whistling t
Is heard by the fountain at twilight gray ;
the zebra w%antonly losses his name,
With wild hoof securing the desolate plain;
the fleet footed ostrich over the waste
Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste,
away to the home Of her rest,
Where she and her mate have scooped their
nest,
Far hid from the p%itiless plunderer's view
In the painless depths Of the parched karroo.
AIdT Ill llc desert L love 10 rue,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by ny side;
Away, away in the wilderness vast,
Where the white mans foot hath never pass
ed,
And the quivered Corannl or Bechuan
Hath rarely crossed with his rowing clan;
A region of emptiness, bowling and drear,
Which man hath abandoned from famine and
fear;
Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone,
With the twilight oat from the yawning
stone
Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub takes root,
Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot;
And the bitter melon, for food and drink,
Is the pilgrims fare by the salt lakes brink ;
A region of drought, where no river glides,
Nor ripping brook with osiered sides;
Where sedgy pool, nor b~ub5ling fount,
Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount,
Appears to refresh the aching eye;
But the barren earth, and the burning sky,
And the blank horizon, round and round,
Spreal, void Of living sight or sound.
And here, while the hight-winds round me
sigh,
And the stars burn bright in the midnight
sky,
As | sit apart by the desert stone,
Like EIiith at tloreh's cave alone,
A still small voice comes through the wild,
Like a father consoling his fretful child,
Which banishes bitterness, wrath and fear,
Saying-MAN Is DISTANT But GoD Is NEAR.
A LONDON LYRIC.