CURRENT VERSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 25

CURRENT VERSE.

A GOOD RESOLVE. Strive to live well; tread In the upright ways. And rather count thine action! than thy days. I When them has lived enough among us here, For every day well spent I count a year. Live well; and then, how soon eoe'er thon die, -..: Thou art of age to claim eternity. • \ —THOMAS RANDOLPH. WHAT MATTER? Sweeter than any song. My songs that found no tongue. Nobler than any. fact, My wish that failed of act; Others shall sing the song, Others shall right the wrong, Finish what I begin And all I fail of win. What matter, I or they? Mine or another's'day? So the right word be said And life the sweeter mane. / —WHITTIEB. A MADRIGAL. Crabbed Age and Toutk Cannot live together; you this full of pleasance. Age is full of care; youth like summer morn. Age like winter weather, Youth like summer brave. Age like winter bare. SHAKESPKABE. XHE CHAMBERMAID. Bhe works in a lodging house Where strange folks stay. The landlady locked them in Before she went away. A careless, sloven chambermaid Who opens not a room But sweeps the dingy hallway With a limp,* old broom. The house looks most respectable. The door. Is painted white. But oh! she fears the lodgew Locked out of sight! For when her work Iβ over The chambermaid lies Listening and shivering And can't close her eyes. A sailor pounds his window, A tramp kicks his door. A little child is lonely And sobs on the floor. And here prays Mary Mother, And there weeps Magdalene. And yonder snores the Pharisee Who knows no sin. Tho chambermaid is frightened. The landlady is dead, 6he hates to put ncr broom ewey And go to bed. —Marjorie Allen Selfferjt In the "New Orleans Double Dealer." OXFORD. Not keenlier does a Jew Recall Jerusalem, Than those who Oxford Knew, The .spell she cast on them; Once printed on the brain, She is indelible, In heaven recalled again. And in the depths of helL Her towers, gardens, streams, In memory's mirror caught. Visit her sons in dreams. And colour all their thought; Exiles in east and west. They hear her sweet bens cnim* And carry in their breait A love, defying time. —C. F. Field In tn» "WestmlMUr Ornaetta." •'•■■•' ,

HOW BEAUTIEUI. 18 KICrIjJT. How beautiful te night! A dewy freshness fille the silent air; No mist obscures, aar cloud, nor speck, nor stain, s Breaks tbe serene of heaven; In full-orbed glory yonder moon <_-_a Bolls through the dark bine depths. Beneath her steady ray The desert-circle spreads. Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. How beautiful la night! —B. SOOTHE. (1774-1843). REMEMBRANCE. Let all the towns remember yon. And tell It out with mellow tongue, Down April yards at fall of dew— That you were fair, that yon were young. A wind at dusk shaken to and fro Against a lemon-coloured pane; White flags In a brief, wistful row; First stars after a flow of rain. But let tills secret keep unsung; Nor wise nor fool must It divine. And tell it out witkuAprll tongue— That all this loveliness was mine! —Lizette Woodworth Beese in the "Lyric." MISTRESS SPRING. Mistress Spring! Mistress Spring! Did I see you peep to-day. Standing tiptoe, eager-eyed, Looking for a pleasant way? Tea, I know 'twas really yon, . Tho' yon bid io won from mc; And my heart went all a-flutter Dreaming of bright days to be. Dreaming of soft meadows sweet. Winding streams of silver sheen, Songbirds flittering here and there, Half-grown buds of tender green. Dreaming of a wooded way, - Where the violet., shyly peep. And the clinging vines embrace Trees half wakened from their aleep. Mistress Spring! O Mistress. Spring! Eagerly we wait your smile— When you peep around again Please stay with us for a while. > —From the Kansas City "Star." TBE BEATEN PATH. Dido with the driven hair And with the salt sea spray Upon those undesired lips. And eyes that follow fading ships,— It is no use to wander there Along the shore All day, Or hope to see him any mors;— v The way ;He went Is the old way! Calypso, let the wanderer go And weave your web and sing your song; Yon knew you could not hold him long, Though lost and shipwrecked en those shores. And how can cursea keep him your* When kisses could not make him so 7 There Is no help from winds that blew. No seas so strange or so unkind That they can make him stay behind;— The way he came he doesn't know. But there's on* way they all can find! Fond Slmaetha, tuning, turning The bird upon yonr wheel and burning Laurel leaves and barley grain,— It will not draw him back again. Tbe moon above the lemon tree Will watch with yon, but watch Id vain. Nor are tbe dead of Hecate Gone more utterly than he,— Fled along a pathway fleet Worn smoth by many .set. _ •- » They make'a.'long procession, sweeping Relentlessly Through all the past,— These hearts that were net meant for keeping " v And failed too fast; And ships with windy, sails at sea And flowery lanes in Sicily Alike led lovers down the track That knows no turning back. _ —Anne -Goodwin Wiaslow In "The North American Review." . -.'■...... /