Ultimate Collection

Why are you sad and still, Astair, counting my words as naught?

From slave to queen I have raised you high, and yet you stare with a weary eye,

And never the laugh has followed the sigh, since you from your land were brought.

Do you long for the lowing herds, Astair? For the desert's dawning white?

For the hawk-eyed tribesman's coarse hard fare, and the brown firm limbs that are hard and bare,

And the eagle's rocks and the lion's lair, and the tents of the Israelite?

I have never chained your limbs, Astair; free as the winds that whirl

Go if you wish. The doors are wide, since less to you is an empire's pride

Than the open lands where the tribesmen ride, wooing the desert girl.

Sonora to Del Rio

Table of Contents

Sonora to Del Rio is a hundred barren miles

Where the sotol weave and shimmer in the sun—

Like a host of swaying serpents straying down the bare defiles

When the silver, scarlet webs of dawn are spun.

There are little 'dobe ranchoes, brooding far along the sky

On the sullen, dreary bosoms of the hills.

Not a wolf to break the quiet, not a single bird to fly;

Where the silence is so utter that it thrills.

Maybe, in the heat of evening, comes a wind from Mexico

Laden with the heat of seven Hells,

And the rattler in the yucca and the buzzard dark and slow

Hear and understand the grisly tales it tells.

Gaunt and stark and bare and mocking rise the everlasting cliffs

Like a row of sullen giants carved of stone,

Till the traveler, mazed with silence, thinks to look at hieroglyphs,

Thinks to see a carven pharaoh on his throne.

And the road goes on forever, o'er the barren hill forever,

And there's little to hint of flowing wine—

But beyond the hills and sotol there's a mellow curving river

And a land of sun and mellow wine.

Summer Morn

Table of Contents

Am-ra stood on a mountain height

At the break of a summer morn;

He watched in wonder the starlight fail

And the eastern scarlet flare and pale

As the flame of day was born.

Am-ra the Ta-an

Out of the land of the morning sun,

Am-ra the Ta-an came.

Outlawed by the priests of the Ta-an,

His people spoke not his name.

Am-ra, the mighty hunter,

Am-ra, son of the spear,

Strong and bold as a lion,

Lithe and swift as a deer.

Into the land of the tiger,

Came Am-ra the fearless, alone,

With his bow of pliant lance-wood,

And his spear with the point of stone.

He saw the deer and the bison,

The wild horse and the bear,

The elephant and the mammoth,

To him the land seemed fair. Face to face met he the tiger,

And gripping his spear’s long haft,

Gazed fearless into the snarling face,

“Good hunting!” cried he, and laughed!

The bison he smote at sunrise,

The deer in the heat of day,

The wild horse fell before him,

The cave-bear did he slay!

A cave sought he? Not Am-ra!

He lived as wild and free,

As the wolf that roams the forest,

His only roof a tree.

When he wished to eat he slaughtered,

But not needlessly he slew,

For he felt a brother to the wild folk,

And this the Wild Folk knew.

The deer they spoke to Am-ra,

Of kin by the tiger slain,

Am-ra met the tiger,

And slew him on the plain!

A youth in the land of the Ta-an,

A slim, young warrior, Gaur,

Had followed Am-ra in the chase,

And fought by his side in war.

He yearned for his friend Am-ra

And he hated the high priest’s face,

Till at last with the spear he smote him,

And fled from the land of his birth race.

Am-ra’s foot-prints he followed,

And he wandered far away,

Till he came to the land of the tiger,

In the gateway of the day.

Into the land of the tiger,

There came an alien race,

Stocky and swart and savage,

Black of body and face.

Into the country of Am-ra,

Wandered the savage band,

No bows they bore but each carried

A stone-tipped spear in his hand.

They paused in Am-ra’s country,

And camped at his clear spring fair,

And they slew the deer and the wild horse,

But fled from the tiger and bear.

Back from a hunt came Am-ra,

With the pelt of a grizzly bear,

He went to the spring of clear water

And he found the black men there.

More like apes than men were they,

They knew not the use of the bow,

They tore their meat and ate it raw

For fire they did not know.

Then angry waxed bold Am-ra,

Furious grew he then,

For he would not share his country

With a band of black ape-men.

Surrender

Table of Contents

I will rise some day when the day is done

And the stars begin to quiver;

I will follow the road of the setting sun

Till I come to a dreaming river.

I am weary now of the world and vow

Of the winds and the winter weather;

I'll reel through a few more years somehow,

Then I'll quite them altogether.

I'll go to a girl that once I knew

And I will not swerve or err,

And I care not if she be false or true

For I am not true to her.

Her eyes are fierce and her skin is brown

And her wild blood hotly races,

But it's little I care if she does not frown

At any man's embraces.

Should I ask for a love none may invade?

Is she more or less than human?

Do I ask for more, who have betrayed

Man, devil, god and woman?

Enough for me if she has of me

A bamboo hut she'll share,

And enough tequilla to set me free