MAY DAY, 1920

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 476, 28 April 1920, Page 1

MAY DAY, 1920

Kingcraft

■ _ FROM " QUEEX E|B.'* —. «n "■ Those- gilded flies, ' .. That, basking in the sunshine of n Court, Fatten on its corruption-—what are 1 hey : ' Tlio drones of Hie community:- I hey food On Iho mechanic's labor: the starved hind For them compels the stubborn glebe to yield Tts unshared, harvests; and yon squalid form Leaner than fleshless misery, that wastes A sun leas life in the unwholesome mine. Drags out. in labor a protracted death, To glut their grandeur; many faint with toil That few may know the cares and woes of sloth. Whence Ihink'sl iliou, kings and parasites arose'Whence that unnatural line of drones who heap Toil and imvanquishable -penury On those who build Iheir palaces, and bring Their daily bread?— From vice, black, loathsome vice: For'rapine,- madness, treachery, and wrong; From all that genders misery, and makes Of earth this 1 horny wilderness; from lust, Revenge, and murder .... And when reason's voice, Loud as the voice of nature, shall have ivaked The nations; and mankind.perceive that vice, Is discord, war, and misery; thai virtufe Is peace, and happiness and Harmony;' When man's majurer nature shall disdfiin The , playthings of its childhood ;—lvingH glure: Will lose its power 1o dazzle: iis anthoiitv, Will silently pass by; 'the goiceou.s Ihroii« Shall stand unnoliced in the regal'haU&Jk ' ..• ■ Fast falling to decay; whilst falsehood s iinde" . Shall be as hateful and unprofitable As that of truth is now. Where is Hie fame, Which the vainglorious mighty of Ihe. earlh Seek to eternalise , .' uli, Ihe faintest sound From lime's light fool fall, Ih,e minutest wavi. That swells Ihe llood of ages, whelms in uothi'nn The unsubstantial bubble. Ay, to-day Stern is the tyrant's mandate, red the gaze That Hashes) desolation, strong ilie arm That scatters multitudes. To-morrow comes! That mandate is a thunderpeal that died ]n ages past: thai gaze, a transient flash On which Ihe midnight closed, tmd- on that arm The worm has mv.de his meal. —Slielley.