Select Poetry.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 45, 20 May 1875, Page 7

Select Poetry.

THE OLD MAN'S. DREAM. "• Oh, for one hour of ydutthful joy ! t Give b^ack.my twentieth Spring! I'd ratherlaugh a' bright haired boy Than reign a greybeard' king. Off with the wrinkled spofteof age. Away.; with learning's crfrwn ? Tear oufthfe's wisdom- written page And dash its trophies down! One moment let my, life-blood stream From boyhood's fount of flame ; Give me one giddy, reeling dream Oflife, all love and fame !,' My listening arigel heard the prayer, And, calmly smiling, said •, " If I but touch thy silvered hair Thy hasty wish -hath sped. But is there nothing. in thy tra?k To bid the fondly stay, While the swift seasons hurry back To find the wistaed-fqr,day ?" "Ah, truest, best of woiriankind, Without thee, what were life ? One bliss I cannot leave behind—

I'll take--my~pre— clous— wife." . The angel took a sapphire p^n, And wrote with morning's dew: " The man would be a boy again And be a husband, too 1" "And is there nothing yet unsaid, Before the change appears ? Remember all those gifts have fled With the revolving years." " Why, yes ; for memory would recall My fond, paternal joys ; I could not bear to leave theni all —

I'll take— my— girls,— and boys." The smiling angel dropped his pen— " Why, this will never do ; The man would be a boy again And be a father too !" And so I laughed— my laugh awoke .The household with its noisei— And wrote my dream, when morning broke, To please the grey. haired boys..