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The Spike or Victoria University College Review 1934

The Rain

page 101

The Rain

Parched lies the earth,
Dry, dry earth:
Down beside the winking sea;
Salty, salty winking seay
Lies King Dearth—
Sun-burned giant, laugh your mirth,
Seedlets wither at their birth,
Mankind starves and loses girth—
Who can laugh but thee?

Winking, dimpling sea,
Laughest thou at me?
I would fain sprawl at thy brink,
(Though I know 'tis death to drink)
Gulping down my doom.
Stupid little sea—
In my belly there is room
For ten like thee.

Dull, dull pain,
Aching throbbing pain—
Must we die through lack of one
Drop of water-Send the rain;
Revive, revive the stricken earth. . .
By the seashore, in the sun,
Laughs King Dearth.
Up soars the sun,

The blue coruscant sun,
Through lake of blue it rises high,
It stalks across the blazing sky,
And sinks: too soon the evenings run,
The blessed moments swiftly fly. . .

Up soars the sun:
And all that lives must die:
(Rolls in glee on blistered earth
Blithe King Dearth.)

My skin is chapped and burning dry,
A blue laugh laughs the grinning sky—
But high above the sere brown plain,
Elijah kneels and prays for rain.

. . . .

Down comes the rain,
The sweet caressing rain:
Comes hissing down in torrents and
The earth sighs forth a raptured strain
And steady drumming fills the land
And men shout out their joy amain
And children caper in the wet,
And, lifting streaming faces, let
The grateful raindrops trickle down.

The rain comes down.
And many in the regal town
Are dancing gaily in the slush
While at the gate the village clown
Rolls frantic, babbling in his joy;
And down the streets the waters gush. . .

Beneath black heaven s low'ring frowns—
King Dearth drowns.

—B.A.S.