In the dawn-light blue they scatter the dew
From their flanks as they gambol on the grey Karroo.

They feed and stray; take fright — flash away —
And the pack that follows is a dun dust-spray:

Half-buck, half-bird! — the veld is stirred
With the flashing ripple of that racing herd!

As dolphins play, hooping irised spray,
These curved, leaping racers loop air with clay:

Footballers, they shun their shadows and run
Heading-and-heeling at the red, round sun:

Brown breakers, they curl and their white manes hurl
At a beach — none may reach — the horizon's pearl.