A desert, a shadeless desert;
Oh, wildly the storm doth sweep !
And I bury my unprotected head
In the pitiless sand and weep.
The wild winds sweep around me,
Moaning, in hopeless song :
“ ’Tis nothing but sandy desert
Forever and ever on.
“ No shady land of peace
Will gladden your heavy eye.
Oh, give the hopeless journey o’er
Rise not—lie here and die.”
But a ridge o’er the sandy desert–
A track, o’er the dusty plain,
Sends hope to my fainting heart,
And I start on my journey again
For I know that One before me
Hath travelled the desert o’er ;
Thank God ! for that print in the sand,
Where a foot hath trod before !
