SELECTED VERSE

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 February 1926, Page 18

SELECTED VERSE

SUMMER PiEAN. -

My heart would have a song to-day. Heart, of what shall I sing? I, who stay at home Amidst the half-scorned beauty Of a familiar thing.

I see white hollyhocks in bloom, ¥ hear the strumming gypsy bee, I company with the early sun, The grass, the wind, the moving skies. And Thee, Thou unseen, an pervading Infinite.

It is enough! Give me no more. Lest I stand silent and ashamed Before this host of beauty Gathered round my door, Remembering— That in the window of his prison gray, John Buuyan set a light that burns to-

day For pilgrims on the upward path, And when no summer sunlight touched his eyes, John Milton sang to us Of Paradise. —Mabel Fett Miller.

Till} ROADS.

Who does not love the hill road That winds about the town? It dips to scented gullies, And breasts the ridges brown, And gives us lovely vistas — Green hills and fields of hay, The silver, ruffled river, A-schooner down the bay. But then there is the plains road, That leads so far away, . And ever, ever beckons, And ever seems to say "Out ou the far horizon, Out where the day's begin, Out in the sunlit spaces, Go there your wish to win. ’ ’ . And yet there is a small road That’s dearer far to me, It is' the little rough road That runs down to the sea; Down to the surging waters, The wind-swept, spacious blue, It is the road to all the world, , Perchance it leads to you. —lsabel Houison.

CARAVANS. Great, grey caravans moving in the night, Full of sullen mystery, laden down with heavy things; Crowding through the darkness as they push on toward the light; Great, grey caravans, on great, grey wings. Swift, silent caravans smashing through the night, Plunging over trackless wastes, wastes where trails can never meet, Spraying noiseless gravel as they crowd on out of sight; Swift, silent caravans on swift, silent feet. Soft, slow caravans swaying through the night, Tinkling bells and padded feet, and spices that the traders bought, Easing through the moonlight, over sands dull white: Soft, slow caravans of soft, slow thought. • —Hal Borland.

THE CHOICE. I. I’d like to wander, till my day's are done, Quit my r house-door, pass through my city’s gate, , And take the road that round the world doth run — The long strong road, so like a stream in spate. It well may be that best things nearest lie, That goodliest fruits in sheltered gardens grow, And wanderers find nought new beneath the sky'— Still, wandering is the surest way to know! 11. I’d like.to greet the sun in every land, To hear the wind in every forest roar. To break a trail, through steppe and snow and sand, Cross every' sea, and touch on every shore. Beneath the stranger-roofs be warmed and fed, Drink and make friends, in strangercompany', Lay, on each chance-found couch, a nomad’s head, And bend, in every' shrine, a nomad’s knee. 111. Great towns that' are the glory of the world, Lone lands that make the loveliness of earth — I would see all before my sail be furled, And learn their way's of love and grief and mirth! 80, keeping still the road that turns not back. I’ll come full circle, ere the dark quite fall, Then light the lamp, undo the travel-

ler’s pack, And say "At home!” when friendly Death doth call. —G. M. Hort. FAME. Fame is a food that dead men eat — I have not stomach for such meat. In little' light and narrow room, They' eat it in the .silent tomb, With no kind voice of comrade near To bid the feaster be of cheer. But Friendship is a nobler thing— Of Friendship it is good to sing. For truly, when a man shall end, -He lives in memory' of his friend, Who doth his better part recall And of his fault make funeral. —Austin Dobson.

“WHERE HEATHER BLOOMS” I know a hill where the heather blooms, Where the wind o’ Heaven blows free; Where the sky on high is blue, blue sky, Which smiles on a Summer sea. I know n spot where the sunshine breaks On a world that is half asleep; Where the sad waves sigh as the day goes by, And over the bright sand creep. I know a dream which is mine all day, And haunts me the long night through; It is sky and sea and a wind that's free And the sun. and the heather and you.