Namaqualand after Rain by William Plomer 2026
Again the veld revives, Imbued with lyric rains,
And sap re-sweetening dry stalks
Perfumes the quickening plains;
Small roots explode in strings of stars,
Each bulb gives up its dream,
Honey drips from orchid throats,
Jewels each raceme;
The desert sighs at dawn -
As in another hemisphere
The temple lotus breaks her buds.
On the attentive air -
A frou-frou of new flowers,
Puff of unruffling petals,
While rods of sunlight strike pure streams
From rocks beveined with metals:
Far in the gaunt karroo
That winter earth denudes,
Ironstone caves give back the burr
Of lambs in multitudes;
Grass waves again where drought
Bleached every upland kraal,
A peach-tree shoots along the wind
Pink volleys through a broken wall,
And willows growing round the dam
May now be seen
with all their traceries of twigs
Just hesitating to be green,
Soon to be hung with colonies
All swaying with the leaves.
Of pendent wicker love-nests
The pretty loxia weaves.
Again the veld revives, Imbued with lyric rains,
And sap re-sweetening dry stalks
Perfumes the quickening plains;
Small roots explode in strings of stars,
Each bulb gives up its dream,
Honey drips from orchid throats,
Jewels each raceme;
The desert sighs at dawn -
As in another hemisphere
The temple lotus breaks her buds.
On the attentive air -
A frou-frou of new flowers,
Puff of unruffling petals,
While rods of sunlight strike pure streams
From rocks beveined with metals:
Far in the gaunt karroo
That winter earth denudes,
Ironstone caves give back the burr
Of lambs in multitudes;
Grass waves again where drought
Bleached every upland kraal,
A peach-tree shoots along the wind
Pink volleys through a broken wall,
And willows growing round the dam
May now be seen
with all their traceries of twigs
Just hesitating to be green,
Soon to be hung with colonies
All swaying with the leaves.
Of pendent wicker love-nests
The pretty loxia weaves.
