Namaqualand after Rain by William Plomer Analysis
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
The 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
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
The 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
