Deserted
Deserted are the canyons,
And the mesas wide and bare,
The rivers run in silence,
Through the lands that none may share.
The peaks are wrapped in shadows,
And the winds that sweep the plain,
Bring no whisper of a footstep,
Nor the echo of a name.
About the Author
John Charles Van Dyke (1856–1932) was an American art historian and critic who also wrote poetically about the desert landscapes of the American Southwest.
Summary
An empty Southwestern landscape is defined by absence: silent rivers, bare mesas, shadowed peaks, and wind carrying neither footsteps nor names.
Analysis
Nearly every natural feature is described through what is missing. Rivers move without sound; winds cross the plain but deliver no evidence of human presence. The final disappearance of both “footstep” and “name” expands physical emptiness into anonymity—as though the desert can erase not only people but their identities. The poem’s restraint makes solitude feel immense rather than simply lonely.