BIG BEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

BIG BEN.

"I -would gather them to me," Booms Big Ben. "I would proffer a sanctuary, Like as a hen Gathereth her strident brood. I am sad, for I have knelled Dying years that have dispelled All the good that had accrued In the years less profligate. X have watched Dawn's lover wait, Looking like a happy midge Steadied on Westminster Bridge. I have called, on nights moon-pearled, To the uttermost new world, Where some exiled soul remembers Palace Yard all lit with embers From a day's death. He has seen Grave Thames, like a Nubian queen Prinked with amber points of light He has felt on frosty night The aureate eye look from St. Stephen's tower. And thought upon the slow years that deflower Women of loveliness, and men of power, And dissipate alike or dole or dower." Come, little chicken chimes, Big Ben is yearning Across the interdict of oceans seven. Teach us anew, lest we should tire of learning The way to Westminster's the way to Heaven. —C. R. ALLEN. 7 D^ncain,