Moonlight
The storm is spent, the wind has died away;
Cool raindrops cling to trembling leaf and tree
As one departing lingers--loath to stay--
And yet departing more unwillingly.
The clouds have vanished from the purpled sky
Before the footsteps of the rising moon
(The queen whose jewelled courtiers prostrate lie
Dazed by the splendour of her silvered shoon).
The earth beneath, half-hidden, half-revealed,
Breathes mellowed beauty where each faery beam
Bathes kloof and vlei and kraal and mealie-field
And willows swaying sadly o'er a stream--
In light--wherein a mining shaft may seem
The angel's ladder of a poet's dream.