Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROSPECTOR, by IDA MCDANIEL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROSPECTOR, by                    
First Line: The bristling desert cloaks its gold
Last Line: Where roses deck the desert's breast.
Subject(s): Prospecting


The bristling desert cloaks its gold;
A shaggy, ruthless miser, old
As Time, it creeps along the earth
From range to range, in silent mirth
At dauntless dreamers in their quest
Of treasure fondled at its breast.

Illusive legends lure men on;
Time comes when grub-kit store is gone;
A-thirst, a-hungered and a-daze,
Across the centuries darts his gaze
In wild-eyed frenzy -- then comes rest
And bleaching bones on the desert's breast.

Another day, grim, fickle Luck
Makes partial payment for the pluck
Of one who tricked the miser old
And homeward turned with proof of gold;
But raging sandstorms, fiend-possessed,
Had sunk his tracks in the desert's breast.

As Time glides on, united bands
Of other Jasons seek new lands.
They find his kit of golden stones
Beside a heap of bleaching bones
And, by this token, quickened quest
Finds treasure deep in the desert's breast

For pioneers few knells are rung;
Unmonumented and unsung,
They served their purpose in the scheme
Of empire-builder's westering dream;
Their children's children now are blessed
Where roses deck the desert's breast.





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