On a Cattle Track

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> On a Cattle Track </h2> <p> Where the strength of dry thunder splits hill-rocks asunder,<br/> And the shouts of the desert-wind break,<br/> By the gullies of deepness and ridges of steepness,<br/> Lo, the cattle track twists like a snake!<br/> Like a sea of dead embers, burnt white by Decembers,<br/> A plain to the left of it lies;<br/> And six fleeting horses dash down the creek courses<br/> With the terror of thirst in their eyes.<br/> <br/> The false strength of fever, that deadly deceiver,<br/> Gives foot to each famishing beast;<br/> And over lands rotten, by rain-winds forgotten,<br/> The mirage gleams out in the east.<br/> Ah! the waters are hidden from riders and ridden<br/> In a stream where the cattle track dips;<br/> And Death on their faces is scoring fierce traces,<br/> And the drouth is a fire on their lips.<br/> <br/> It is far to the station, and gaunt Desolation<br/> Is a spectre that glooms in the way;<br/> Like a red smoke the air is, like a hell-light its glare is,<br/> And as flame are the feet of the day.<br/> The wastes are like metal that forges unsettle<br/> When the heat of the furnace is white;<br/> And the cool breeze that bloweth when an English sun goeth,<br/> Is unknown to the wild desert night.<br/> <br/> A cry of distress there! a horseman the less there!<br/> The mock-waters shine like a moon!<br/> It is "Speed, and speed faster from this hole of disaster!<br/> And hurrah for yon God-sent lagoon!"<br/> Doth a devil deceive them? Ah, now let us leave them&mdash;<br/> We are burdened in life with the sad;<br/> Our portion is trouble, our joy is a bubble,<br/> And the gladdest is never too glad.<br/> <br/> From the pale tracts of peril, past mountain heads sterile,<br/> To a sweet river shadowed with reeds,<br/> Where Summer steps lightly, and Winter beams brightly,<br/> The hoof-rutted cattle track leads.<br/> There soft is the moonlight, and tender the noon-light;<br/> There fiery things falter and fall;<br/> And there may be seen, now, the gold and the green, now,<br/> And the wings of a peace over all.<br/> <br/> Hush, bittern and plover! Go, wind, to thy cover<br/> Away by the snow-smitten Pole!<br/> The rotten leaf falleth, the forest rain calleth;<br/> And what is the end of the whole?<br/> Some men are successful after seasons distressful<br/> [Now, masters, the drift of my tale];<br/> But the brink of salvation is a lair of damnation<br/> For others who struggle, yet fail.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />