POETRY

Lake County Press, Issue 2636, 15 June 1916, Page 2

POETRY

fN MEMORIAM. •'0 n Death! mysterious tyrant, wrupt ill gloom, Invisible, remorseless gorgon of the tomb, Whence comest thou to this fair earth , - of ours, Enrobing with thy blight its fairest ' ■ flowers ? • ■ Give answer. *• Since first upon that primal morn Thy whetted and envenomed dart . , Tlje fratricidal blow thou first did ’ 'strike, Leaving its horrid impress on the virgin soil • • In trickling carmine, what myriad * hosts Have stooped to thy all-conquering swav In Belgium, France, Poland, Italy, Making these fair and lovely plains .A-cemetery for our virile youth To fill a despot’s lust for power, Yet art thou still insatiate, Again. I sav, give answer. 4 q But' yesterday I gazed upon thy work, The marble brow and fixed eye, Draped with the darkly curling locks Of one struck in bis prime.

A scar was there to note how fierce 11, '. d been the struggle ere lie passed away Into thy realm. Like the calm that reigns When shadows fall on hard-fought field, Or stills the bosom of the mighty deep When hurricane is past, serene he lay. No answer came from those cold lips To tell of dark defeat. Is there no sign That thou thyself will bo discrowned, And made to render up thy spoils? There is! there is! Although thy reign is universal now Yet art thou but the minister of Him Who bowed His head and died, and in that death Brought Life and Immortality to fight, Ushering in the dawn of brighter day That yet shall be revealed; Thy victims yet shall burst their cerements Before the blaze of His almighty power. Then shall thy throne dissolve, thy empire cease Before the will of Him who hath the keys Of Life and Death. Hallelujah! J. Stewart.