Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | II. Light: Day: Night | | The Oasis of Sidi Khaled | | Wilfred Scawen Blunt (1840–1922) |
| | | HOW the earth burns! Each pebble under foot | |
| Is as a living thing with power to wound. | |
| The white sand quivers, and the footfall mute | |
| Of the slow camels strikes but gives no sound, | |
| As though they walked on flame, not solid ground! | 5 |
| ’T is noon, and the beasts’ shadows even have fled | |
| Back to their feet, and there is fire around | |
| And fire beneath, and the sun overhead. | |
| Pitiful Heaven! what is this we view? | |
| Tall trees, a river, pools, where swallows fly, | 10 |
| Thickets of oleander where doves coo, | |
| Shades, deep as midnight, greenness for tired eyes. | |
| Hark, how the light winds in the palm-tops sigh! | |
| Oh, this is rest! oh, this is paradise! | | | | |
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