A SLUMBER SONG OF THE PUBLIC GARDENS, CAPE TOWN.
"I'se gwine home to Dixie,
I'se gwine no more to wander."
—Old Plantation Song.
Soft haze upon the mountain and a haze upon the sea,
High noon above the Gardens and shadows on the way;
And twenty weary people slipping out of time awee,—
Out of time and out of trouble, on a hot midsummer's day.
Blow softly, silver trumpets, in a fairy serenade,
Ye lilies of St. Joseph, swinging lightly over-head.
In the shadows of the Gardens the wearied come to rest,
In the spacious dusk and quiet the fevered blood is stilled;
While sleep, on tiptoe stepping, lays aside the hopeless quest,
Takes away the fag of travel and the promise unfulfilled;
In white and gold and purple the wondrous petals gleam;
In white and gold and purple is the wondrous slope of dream.
