Classic Poem

Banks of blue shadow blossom on the breast
Of Table Mount, like glassing brooks that hold
Narcissus-eve, and on his rifted crest
Forests of rock break into sudden bloom,
Soft, billowy, white, which sunset will illume
With evanescent gold.

Cloud-schooners from some craggy mountain-port
Anchor o'er fair False Bay, whose swift waves swirl
On broad, bleached sands where foam-flowers lightly sport,
Like pear-tree blossom tickled by the breeze:
Hottentot's Holland Hills, o'er indigo seas,
Glow, coral-pink and pearl:

And on the hither side of the siren-bay,
Like giant-horseshoe gleaming in the sun,
The magic-mirror of still Zeekoe Vlei
Will melt ere-long the sunset's golden bars,
And gathering the diamonds of the stars
Double them one by one.

Nature unlocks her treasuries and gives
With flowing hand to human heart and brain:
What in return yield we, poor fugitives,
Who scorn her gifts, whose transitory dust
Is seldom moved except by hate or lust
Of power, or flesh, or gain?