THE PASSING OF THE FOREST

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1947, Page 2

THE PASSING OF THE FOREST

.11 glory cannot vanish from the hills. Their strength remains, their stature of command O’er shadowy valleys that cool twilight fills For wanderers weary "in a faded land; Refreshed when rain-clouds swell a thousand rills, Xncient of days in green old age they stand, Though lost the beauty that became Man’s prey When from their flanks he stripped the woods away.

Well may these brooding, mutilated kings, stripped of the robes that ages weav- / ed, discrowned, Draw down the clouds with soft-en-folding wings And white, aerial fleece to wrap them round, To hide the scars that very season brings, The fire’s black smirch, the landslip’s gaping wound, Well may they shroud their heads’ in mantle grey Since from their brows the leaves were plucked away! Gone is the forest’s labyrinth of life, Its clambering, thrusting, clasping, throttling race, Creeper with creeper, bush with bush at strife Struggling in silence for a breathing space; Below, a realm with tangled rankness rife. Aloft, tree columns in victorious grace. Gone the dumb hosts in warfare dim; none stay; Dense brake and stately trunk have passed away. Gone are the forest tracks where oft we rode Under the silvery fern fronds, climbing slow Through long green tunnels’, while hot noontide glowed And glittered on the tree-tops far below. There in the stillness of the mountain road We just could hear the valley river flow With dreamy murmur through the slumbering day Lulling the dark-browed woods now passed away.

'The axe bites deep. The rushing fire streams bright; Swift, beautiful and fierce it speeds for Man, Nature's rough-handed foeman, keen to smite And mare the loveliness of ages. Scan The blackened forest ruined in a night The slyvan Parthenon that God will plan But builds not twice. Ah, bitter price to pay Tor Men’s dominion—beauty swept away. —The late Hon. W. Pember Reeves.