The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

On Downing went; the desert flung
Its doors agape to let him in;
And curious desert creatures hung
Upon his track with various din.
Grey wolves pursued him, lolling fire

And dropping foam of fierce desire
For hours and hours along his trail;
But found their iron muscles fail
And ceased to howl each other on,
And vanished rearward one by one.

Simooms of horses rushed to meet
His coming, joined him, kept beside
With straining neck and glinting feet
And fiery eyes and foamy hide;
And so would run the livelong day,
Till, wearied by his courser's stride,
They fell behind with wistful neigh
And stared afar to see him ride.

Uncounted bison thronged his flight
And westward flowed like tiding night.
They darkened leagues of treeless land,
And billowed close on either hand
With lurching hump and drooping head
And frothing mouth and glances red;
Yet sought no more to fight than flee,
And only surged beside his knee,
A dumb, uncouth, unreasoning throng
Which knew not why it toiled along.
For hours he drove through plunging ranks
Whose foam besprent his stallion's flanks;
For hours he scarcely saw the ground,
So thickly was he compassed round;
For dusty miles on dusty miles
He rode from jostling files to files;
Yet surely won his way before,
And found himself alone once more.