Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/146

The locust clouds have darkened heaven,
The "rusted" fields to the flame are given;
The war-cry is echoing wild and loud,
For the war of the savage, fierce and proud,
Has burst like the storm from the thunder-cloud—
On Afric's Southern Wilds.

"Never despair, though the harvests fail;
Though the hosts of a savage foe assail;
Never despair, we shall conquer yet,
And the toils of our earlier years forget.
In hope's bright glory our sun shall set—
'Midst Afric's Southern Wilds."

••••••
Our toil-worn fathers are sinking to rest,
But their children inherit their hope's bequest.
Valleys are smiling in harvest pride;
There are fleecy flocks on the mountain side;
Cities are rising to stud the plains;
The life-blood of commerce is coursing the veins
Of a new-born Empire, that grows and reigns—
Over Afric's Southern Wilds.

Rev. H. H. Dugmore.