Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Charles HenryPhelps

1105 Yuma

WEARY, weary, desolate,

Sand-swept, parched, and cursed of fate;

Burning, but how passionless!

Barren, bald, and pitiless!

Through all ages baleful moons

Glared upon thy whited dunes;

And malignant, wrathful suns

Fiercely drank thy streamless runs;

So that Nature’s only tune

Is the blare of the simoon,

Piercing burnt unweeping skies

With its awful monodies.

Not a flower lifts its head

Where the emigrant lies dead;

Not a living creature calls

Where the Gila Monster crawls,

Hot and hideous as the sun,

To the dead man’s skeleton;

But the desert and the dead,

And the hot hell overhead,

And the blazing, seething air,

And the dread mirage are there.