Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
The Oasis
By Robert Southey (1774–1843)S
Settled the moveless mist.
The timid antelope, that heard their steps,
Stood doubtful where to turn in that dim light.
The ostrich, blindly hastening, met them full.
At night, again in hope,
Young Thalaba lay down:
The morning came, and not one guiding ray
Through the thick mist was visible,
The same deep moveless mist that mantled all.
Who haunts for prey the abode of humankind!
O for the plover’s pleasant cry
To tell of water near!
O for the camel-driver’s song!
For now the water-skin grows light,
Though of the draught, more eagerly desired,
Imperious prudence took with sparing thirst.
Oft from the third night’s broken sleep,
As in his dreams he heard
The sound of rushing winds,
Started the anxious youth, and looked abroad,
In vain! for still the deadly calm endured.
Another day passed on;
The water-skin was drained;
But then one hope arrived,
For there was motion in the air!
The sound of the wind arose anon,
That scattered the thick mist,
And lo! at length the lovely face of Heaven!
Was opened on their view.
They looked around, no wells were near,
No tent, no human aid!
Flat on the camel lay the water-skin,
And their dumb servant difficultly now,
Over hot sands and under the hot sun,
Dragged on with patient pain.
When in that burning waste the travellers
Saw a green meadow, fair with flowers besprent,
Azure and yellow, like the beautiful fields
Of England, when amid the growing grass
The bluebell bends, the golden king-cup shines,
And the sweet cowslip scents the genial air,
In the merry month of May;
O joy! the travellers
Gaze on each other with hope-brightened eyes,
For sure through that green meadow flows
The living stream! And lo! their famished beast
Sees the restoring sight!
Hope gives his feeble limbs a sudden strength,
He hurries on!—
Were senna, and the gentian’s blossom blue,
And kindred plants, that with unwatered root
Fed in the burning sand, whose bitter leaves
Even frantic Famine loathed.