SELECTED VERSE

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 23 May 1925, Page 18

SELECTED VERSE

THE FOLAVER. A wild bird filled tiie morning air With dewy-hearten song; I took it in. a golden sn«.o Of meshes dose and strong. But. where is now the »uiig I heard .- j<or all my cunning art. I who would house a singing bird Have caged a broken heart. Wilfrid Gibson, IN THE SHADOWS. When the twilight softly gathers And the sunbeams droop and tire, We will sit among the shadows, Making pictures in the.fire ; For its glowing .heart is holding All the treasures we desire, And we’ll gather them together In the dreamland of the fire. Let the yellow leaves he scattered, Or the throstle far be flown! We will smile among the shadows In our little house alone. We .will stir the glowing embers Till the flames go leaping higher, And we’ll warm our hearts together In the dreamland of the fire. What though winds may whistle round us, Or the winter bring its snows! Little you and I are caring If the light of summer goes, Though about- ou r House of Hearts dear, Time and Fate and all conspire, AVe will smile among the shadows, With our dreamland of the five. PINK- CLOVER. This, this will 1 have to remember ' ;In the days when my blood has -- grown cold; When I sit o’er the last shining ember, And stir the faint glories of old; A field of high-h’owing oink clover, That is bared to the gold-hunting bee, - With a gull, snowy-wingecl, sweeping over, And, oast the pale road, to the sea. ’ —Myra* Morris in the Australasian.

THE SAILING SHIP. A dim -shape moves on the horizon grey, A ship with her sails all furled, And she frets to unfurl them ere break of day Ere the sun hursts forth on the world. I glimpse her again in the midday glow, t As white as the ghostly moon; And she races the rollers, and finds them slow. And the sun beats down at bright noon. "With sails full set, on the creaming crest, She floats.like a filmy shroud. And then flits beyond sight on eerie quest, And the sun sinks down ’neath a cloud. ' As nearly naught as a gossamer veil She floats in the dying light, With her masts faintly piercing the dark’ning trail — And the sun slides down out of sight. At twilight chill, from the offing grey She comes, at the tide’s full height, And she waits for her signal—“ Away, array. ” For the sun has gone; it is nighty A golden ray from her. bridge now beams, A ray that’s a pathway bright; • And she sails for the Farland, ’mid rainbow streams AVhere she needs neither sun nor light. BEAUTY. I thought of Beauty, and I saw a flight Of snowy gulls above the wet sand soar. And poise awhile, like some pale, wandering cloud, Above a dreaming shore. I thought of Beauty and I saw—ah, sweet! — A lily opening to the lovely moon; Cradled in darkling water-rings that spread Toward a wide lagoon. I thought of Beauty, and I saw within My hands a howl of deep, translucent jade, Like deep-sea pools where shafts of golden sun Hav© quivered down to shade. On all these things Iv marvelled one by one, / The seagulls and the lily, and the bowl, . Until a happiness inviolate Brimmed oyer in my soul! —P. Mann, in the Australasian.

THE, CTRL. Why should she not swing dow n the street. With shining breast and luring feet. To set a track of dreaming lire In many a man’s untold desire ? 1 1 is the way of youth to go— With careless eyes —superbly so. Vet, as she is, the world wil’ bo! Her splendor and he- witchery *te pledges o” some fa "-off good, White sacraments of Motherhood; And every flame that wrongs her sears Some glory of the coming years. dim heh’nd the ranks of men Who build'the road and drain the fen, And keep the faith and right the wrong. And sot a people’s soul to song. Ever arc women line on line, Shadowy, tremulous, divine X. J. COCKS, in “Australian Songs and other Poems.”