| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1668. Caravans |
| | | By Josephine Preston Peabody |
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| WHAT bring ye me, O camels, across the southern desert, | |
| The wan and parching desert, pale beneath the dusk? | |
| Ye great slow-moving ones, faithful as care is faithful, | |
| Uncouth as dreams may be, sluggish as far-off ships,— | |
| What bring ye me, O camels? | 5 |
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| “We bring thee gold like sunshine, saving that it warms not; | |
| And rarest purple bring we, as dark as all the garnered | |
| Bloom of many grape-vines; and spices subtly mingled | |
| For a lasting savor: the precious nard and aloes; | |
| The bitter-sweet of myrrh, like a sorrow having wings; | 10 |
| Ghostly breath of lilies bruised—how white they were!— | |
| And the captive life of many a far rose-garden. | |
| Jewels bring we hither, surely stars once fallen, | |
| Torn again from darkness: the sunlit frost of topaz, | |
| Moon-fire pent in opals, pearls that even the sea loves. | 15 |
| Webs of marvel bring we, broideries that have drunken | |
| Deep of all life-color from a thousand lives,— | |
| Each the royal cere-cloth of a century. | |
| We come! What wouldst thou more?” | |
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| All this dust, these ashes, have ye brought so far? | 20 |
| All these days, these years, have I waited in the sun? | |
| I would have had the wingëd Mirage of yonder desert. | |
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