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 actions than thy days. I When thou baa lived enough among ns here, For every day well spent I count a year. Live well; and then, how soon aoe'er thou die. Thou art of age to claim eternity. \ —THOMAS BANDOLPH. 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 tbe sweeter made. / —WHITTIEB. A MADRIGAL. Crabbed Ago and Youth. Cannot live together; You this full of pleasance, Age is full of care; Youth like Btammer morn. Age like winter weather, Youth like summer brave. Age like winter bare. SHAKESPEARE. THE t!rT*- tn>EBMATP * She 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 doorvis painted white. But oh! she fears the lodgers Locked out of sight! For when ber work is over The chambermaid lies Listening and shivering And can't close her eyes. A sailor pounds his window, A tramp kicks bis 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. The chambermaid is frightened. The landlady is dead. She hates to put her broom away And go to bed. —Marjorie Allen in the "New Orleans Double Dealer." OXFORD. Not keenlier does a Jew Becall 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 ehlms, And carry in their breast A love, defying time. —C. P. Field In the "Westminster Oasetta.- ' '-

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS X IG_JT. Bow beautlfol ia night! A dewy fre-hnesa fills the allent air; No mist obscures, __tr cloud, nor speck, nor stain. . Breaks tbe serene of heaven; In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine Bolls through the dark bine depths. Beneath her steady ray The desert-circle spreads. Like the round ocean, girdled with th* iky. Sow beautiful is night! —B. SOUTHEY (1774-1843). REMEMBRANCE. Let all the towns remember you. And tell It out with mellow tongue, Down April yards at fall of dewThat 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 this secret keep unsung; Nor wise nor fool must it divine. And tell it out' wtth-Aprfl tongue— That all this loveliness was mine! —Lizette Woodworth Reese In tbe "Lyric." MISTRESS SPRING. Mistress Spring! Mistress Spring! Did I see you peep to-day. Standing tiptoe, eager-eyed, Looking for a pleasant way? Tee, I know 'twas really yon, . Tho' you hid ao soon 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 violets shyly peep, And tbe clinging vines embrace Trees half wakened from their sleep. Mistress Spring! O Mistress. Spring! Eagerly we wait yonr smile — When you peep aronnd again Please stay with us for a while. —From the Kansas City "Star." THE BEATEN PATH. Dido with the driven hair And with the aalt sea spray Upon those undesired lips. And. eyes that follow fading ships,— It ia no nse to wander there Along the shore . All day, . ' Or hope to see him any more;— v The way iHe went Is the old way! Calypso, let tbe wanderer go And weave your web and sing your song; You knew you could not hold him long, Though lost and shipwrecked on those shores, And how can curses keep him yours When kisses could not make him so 7 There is no help from winds that blow. No seas so strange or so unkind That they can make _____ stay behind*— Tbe way be came he doesn't know, Bnt there's one way they all can And! Fond Slmaetha, turning, turning The bird upon yonr wheel and burning Laurel leaves and barley grain,— It will not draw bin back again. Tbe moon above tbe lemon tree Will watch with yon, bnt watch Id vain, Xor are the dead of Hecate Gone more utterly than he.— . _ Fled along a pathway fleet Worn smoth by many feet.; « • w They make a long procession, sweeping Relentlessly Through all the past,— Th___ hearts that were not meant for keeping " - •» And failed too fast; And ships with windy, sans at sea And flowery lanes in Sicily Alike led lovers down the track That knows no turning,back. ■ ----.

.—Anne win Winslow in "The North American Review.':. .„ -.-...,,... /-•