FAME AND DEATH.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 17 June 1915, Page 2

FAME AND DEATH.

I thought my boy was just a ray of light, A sunbeam where I trod, A careless imp, a gay, illusive spiite, His feet with rapture shod $ Until he went for country and for right And rought his way -q ,(.;oJ.

No high ambition leapt ; Vithin "his breast: ~, .. " He laughed at thought of fame; He merely tried to do his very best; He had to play the game; And when the game . was duty's st em behest, He played and found a :.f.ne.

His words were few, ' Of course Til have to go," I could not say hint nay; A heart as light as his could never know The anguish of that da/; He seemed to run to meet the cruel foe, Just as he ran to play.

Methinks Death plucked him as a dainty flower, Fit for his bride so fair; And seeking Fame within her sacred bower, He twined it in her hair, And in return Fame gave to Death as dower A smile so debonair.

And so I dare not grudge the giftsh© g3<Ve ; Who earned such joy as this; When sorrow breaketh o'er me like a wave, This be the mother's bliss, That when they laid him in a soldier's grave Fame gave to Death a kiss. —A. S. Walker, in the Saturday Review. • " .