ORIGINAL POETRY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 953, 27 January 1876, Page 2

ORIGINAL POETRY.

TO THE MEMORY OP J. W. R. The Rcde but Hxarttelt Thibcte o» a Frikkd. Join the wailing of the widow And the cry of orphaned ones ; Mingle tears of rent affection With the torrent as it runs : For he who best express*! in form Our local Manhood's pride. Now lies beneath the shadows On the silent mountain-side. Seasons shall past in single file, With changes in their train, But such as he may not be seen For long, long years again. Those lips that spoke in comfort To the poor and the distressed; That heart which felt for others' woe® Are now for aye at rest. That brain that ploughed its active way Deep in the social soil. Has now thrown up its guiding reina And ceased from further toil. Rest thee amid the shadows On a bed of warm regret, Thy star that dropped its beams on ua Shall shine in memory yet. Thy name is carved in letters large, On hearts of local men ; The dirge that swelled up from the town Was echoed from the glen. Not one of all the gathering That closed around thy tomb, But felt another friend nad gone To his eternal home. 0, reader, if thou'dst view the man Of charity and peace, I'd point thee to that open grave And bid thy wrangling cease. I'd call on thee to copy u That kind and gentle >pint, For meekness, wys the go9d old Book, A Kingdom shall inherit. May Goti protect the widow And assume the fatherhood Of those who've lost their fat he* In the close-spun ties of blood. And of the dead let it be said In truth, by lip and pen, That he who's gone was clearly one ? Of Natnre's gentlemen. J. 8.