FAREWELL TO WINTER.

Evening Star, Issue 14054, 8 May 1909, Page 4

FAREWELL TO WINTER.

Farewell? Seems only yesterday a great and hoary ghost Came trailing through the bln© mists, on the wild New Zealand coast. 1 As I watched you pant and shiver I, with strange, true instinct, knew You were typical of Life, oh! Winter, old yet ever new, ’ My youthful days were passing. I was learning, like the rest, That our lives are not all sunshine, that we each must stand the test. So I learned to love thee, Winter, for thy weird and wilful ways Seemed a rhythm to my turmoil in those young and restless days. Thy storms oft left me breathless! Thy gales were rough and strong; But I laughed aloud at last, old friend, and sang my happy song. As you kissed me or caressed me, as you tossed me to and fro, Though you never played me falsely in those days of long ago. There’s a Winter-time in Nature, and Winter-time in Life, When days axe full of discipline, of stru'Me tears, and strife; D ° ' When all around is cheerless, when our hopes are crushed indeed, When the sun and flowers and sympathy have left us in our need. How clearly I remember, in those days of pain and woe, That I could not bear the coming of the months of frost and snow; But now that I am older I with wiser ©yes can see How good a resting time it was to Nature and to me. Oh! I was young and joyous, and my heart knew nought of care, And I wanted to be free to wander here and everywhere; But now that I am feeble grown I hold with jealous bands The time of peacefulness that steals across the fallow lands. Nestling safe beneath your ice-wrap, warmly sheltered from the blast. There is Life to, spring abundant, there is Hope we till but lost; There are violets and pansies, there are wildflowers to unfold, When the briar flings its fragrance bo the daisy’s heart of gold. Adieu! Adieu! Yet shortly we will fret and fume and tire For thy evenings long and cosy, for the big and blazing fire; For the home-songs and the wind-tunes, for the sea-bird’s plaintive wail, For the passion in the tree tops, and the noisy, romping gale. When we lose the leaping cascade and the riot of the rills, When the tinkle of the sleigh-bells comes nc more across the hills, I will not forget to whisper to the children a; my knee That the Winter-time has ever been a into: kind to me.

Kiss me once again, dear Winter, bold me close with loving strain, I mind nob now thy snow storms or thy hard and beating rain; I only know the parting is as from an old. old friend, Who was wrinkled, torn, and twisted, but was faithful to the end. Good-bye! With slender bluebells I will wav: a long adieu, With hyacinth and snowdrop I will twine a wreath for you; ‘Then I’ll wrap yon up in memories, sweetscented, precious, old, And will hug them to my warm heart as a miser hugs his gold. Farewell! Farewell! These last adieus are painful to my heart, For you have shared my sorrows, and 1 cannot with you part;' Still I know that Spring, impatient, waityour passing, and her song Will re-echo through the valleys full of triumph, vibrant, long. I say the word reluctantly. Old friends ar: loved the best, And it hurts me that you journey all alone to take your rest; So I give you, as for comfort, from the om who loves you well, A long and tender handclasp, as we sob “Farewell! Farewell!” J. C. Zelius Watt-ox. St. Clair.