SELECTED VERSE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 17 April 1926, Page 16

SELECTED VERSE

THE WEARY WALKER. A plain in front of me, And there’s the road Upon it Wide country, And, "too, the road! Past the -first ridge, another, And still the road Creeps on. Perhaps no other Ridge for the road 1 ”' All! Past that ridge a third, Which still the road Has to climb furtherward — The thin white road! Sky seems to end its track ; q But no. The road Trails down the hill at the back Ever the road! —Thomas Hardy

ROSEMARY Rosemary-shy went straying away, Straying away where the bell-birds sing; * Gathering brier for garlands gay Deep in the glade where the fairies wing. Oh, Rosemary-shy came dancing back, With secret dreams down the old bush track! Rosemary-shy went straying away, Straying away where the gorsebush grows. (Golden the common at dawn of day Set for the feet'of our sweet bushrose!) Oh, Rosemary-shy came dancing back, With secret dreams down the old bush track! Rosemary-shy went straying away, Straying away where the sweet stais gleam, 4 Deep in the blue where the angels play— Now we have never a secret dream. But still we can see her dancing .back, A frail mist-wraith down the old bush track! —Shirley Alcock, in the Australasian.

WAYS UNKNOWN. Give me the open spaces, give me the heights unknown, And the hidden path across them, where the wild winds have blown That sweeping all before, left no taint of sorrow there — But a strange song in tire wilderness and the sweet fresh air. There, streams shall make you. musio and birds shall lend you joy, And clouds be' your companions—swift as a light-foot hoy; There, rain shall greet you softly, as dew falls from above, «, The winds shall bring you laughter and the skies shall give you love.

COME, SLEEP! Come, sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving Lock me in delight awhile; Let some pleasing dreams beguile All my fancies; that from thence 1 may feel an influence All my powers of care bereaving. Though but a shadow, but a sliding. Let me know some little joy! We that suffer long annoy Are contented with a thoughtThrough an idle fancy wrought: O let my joys have some abiding. • —John Fletcher (1579-1625).

GIFTS. I asked for vision, that my eves might see The beauty that would last eternally. For courage in the things of every day. That I might fearless wallj my chosen way. I asked for laughter,, proof against the years, - ■ To pour a limpid singing o’er my tears. And then I asked “If only one may be, Give me that first—the strong, clear eyes that see!” —Myra Morris in the Australasian.

* A CRADLE SONG. O men from the fields! Come gently within. Tread, .softly, softly, O !■ Men coming in. ; Mavourneen is going From me and from you, Where Mary will fold him With mantle of blue! From reek of the smoke And cold of the floor, And the peering of things Across the haif-door. 0, men from .the fields! Softly, .softly, come thro’ Mary putts round him Her mantle of blue. —Padraic Colum

* 1 SOME LIFT, SOME LEAN” There are two kinds of people on earta to-day— Just two kinds of people, no more, I say. Not the saint and the_ sinner, for ’tis well understood The good are half bad and the bad are half good; ' Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s -wealth You must first know the state of his conscience and health/; Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man; Not the happy and sad, for the fastflying years Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears. . ; No! the two kinds of people on earth that I mean Are the people who lift and the people who lean. Where’er you go you will find the world’s masses Are always divided in just these two classes; And, oddly enough, you find, too, I ween, There is only one lifter tc twenty who lean,. In what class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road? Or are you a leaner, who lets others bear Your portion of labour and worry and care?